If legislation making its way through the Senate passes, that bill along with efforts in the states are likely to mean that millions of undocumented workers will not obtain legal driver’s licenses.
Advocates for the bill argue that the measure, which the House passed last month, is vital to America’s security because the Sept. 11 hijackers found it too easy to get driver’s licenses, and that contributed to their ability to easily board the airplanes.
Known as the REAL ID Act, the legislation would require that a state obtain proof of a driver’s license applicant’s legal residency if the state wants the license to be recognized by the federal government as valid identification for many purposes, including for boarding commercial flights.
The bill’s future is far from certain, however; some senators have expressed concerns about it.
Still, undocumented workers like Joel, a Mexican immigrant who lives in Chicago and asked that his last name not be used, are disheartened by the bill.
“It looks like my hope, I can’t keep it too much more,” said the 40-year-old, who has lived in the U.S. for seven years. He drives, but always in dread of being stopped by police because he doesn’t have a license.
“I don’t know what will happen if they continue. It will be hard to be in this country,” said the immigrant, who works in landscaping, is married and has three children. “I think I got to say adios to my sweet dreams and my expectation.”
The debate over immigrants and driver’s licenses is a microcosm of the national debate on undocumented immigrants. There are more than 9 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., researchers estimate.
As Congress pushes forward, an increasing number of states are tightening rules for issuing driver’s licenses. Partly an effort to fix broken and fraud-prone licensing systems–in New York state, for instance, officials discovered that one Social Security number was used to get 57 driver’s licenses–it’s also largely about closing loopholes illegal immigrants have used to obtain licenses legally.
While licenses for illegal immigrants appear to be on the way out, something of a small countertrend is occurring with what might be called “lite” driver’s licenses.
Utah this week has joined Tennessee in offering illegal immigrants a document that allows them to drive legally and get car insurance but isn’t meant to serve as an ID.
“On one hand, we’re protecting Utah motorists by making sure everyone has an incentive to get a license to make sure they have insurance and their cars are safe,” said Michael Mower, a legislative aide to the governor.
“But on the other hand, we’re not maintaining the driver’s license [for undocumented immigrants], which some feel has led to some abuses in voting and identification purposes.” The state used to allow illegal immigrants to get a license without a Social Security number. Tennessee officials say their new certificate program is working, though some immigrants feel stigmatized by the card, which looks different from a driver’s license.
The subject of illegal immigrants is complex and the question of driver’s licenses is complicated. On one hand, such immigrants have violated the law and are seen as a drain on public resources.
Licenses cloud distinction
“If we give them the country’s most valuable ID document, what distinction is there left between a legal immigrant and an illegal immigrant?” said Marti Dinerstein, an expert associated with the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which favors tighter controls.
But these immigrants also contribute greatly to the nation’s economic vitality, providing cheap labor and a willingness to do the lowliest work. And licensing undocumented immigrants as drivers benefits public safety because it increases the likelihood that they know the rules of the road.
“I think it’s a very serious safety issue,” said Cook County Circuit Judge Patrick McGann, once a supervising traffic court judge. “The reality is, there are immigrants in our society working every day. They drive, they are on our highways.
“The person who is most likely to do any of us harm is not a person with a gun or knife. It’s a person driving a motor vehicle improperly because they are impaired by alcohol or drugs or they have not learned how to drive a vehicle safely.” Illegal immigrants admit they are more likely to flee the scene of traffic accidents because of fear of jail and deportation for driving without a license.
“I think I would do the same thing if I get in big trouble,” said Alfredo, an undocumented worker who asked that his last name not be used. He said he would stop in such a situation if he had a license and insurance.
The disagreement on the driver’s license issue isn’t partisan. Even within the Republican Party there’s a division on the issue. California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor in 2003 in part because he vowed to repeal a law allowing undocumented workers to get driver’s licenses; he did.
Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush favored a bill that would have permitted such licenses, but it died in the Legislature last year.
Spurring the REAL ID legislation was the memory of the Sept. 11 attacks and the ease with which many of the terrorists were able to obtain driver’s licenses, which they then used as identification to board the four aircraft they hijacked that day.
Especially troubling to the bill’s supporters was that some of the hijackers who were in the U.S. on expired visas could use driver’s licenses to move around the nation.
“Mohamed Atta, who is the ringleader of 9/11 murderers, entered the United States on a six-month visa,” Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) said in February during House debate on the ID bill. “That visa expired on July 9, 2001. He got a driver’s license from the state of Florida on May 5, 2001. That was a 6-year driver’s license.”
“Had this bill been in effect at the time, that driver’s license would have expired on July 9, and he would not have been able to use that driver’s license to get on a plane,” said Sensenbrenner, the House Judiciary Committee chairman who introduced the bill.
But critics say the bill’s supporters overstate the role state licensing flaws played in the attacks. For instance, Sensenbrenner and other supporters of the bill have said licensing was so lax that the 19 future hijackers were able to get 63 driver’s licenses.
That’s an urban myth, critics say. The independent Sept. 11 commission established that of the 19 hijackers, 13 had driver’s licenses. And far from being undocumented, all 19 had entered the U.S. legally, though by the time of the attacks some of their visas had lapsed.
The bill’s critics also say licensing undocumented workers would improve homeland security. That would allow the personal information of millions of such immigrants to be added to state databases, including photographs and perhaps fingerprints. And the addition of that information would decrease the size of the “haystack,” the part of the population now largely in hiding from authorities, in which terrorists could conceal themselves.
While the REAL ID legislation won House approval, there are questions about whether it will pass in the Senate. Key senators, including Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), have said they would prefer to deal with immigration in a comprehensive package, not piecemeal.
Right wing wary too
Meanwhile, conservatives as well as advocates for immigrants are lining up to oppose the bill. Conservatives see the legislation as a major step toward creation of a national ID card, which they condemn as a threat to individual liberty.
States aren’t waiting for the federal government, however. Since Sept. 11, dozens of states have tightened their licensing requirements.
Last year, for instance, Illinois lawmakers rejected a bill that would have allowed the state to issue licenses to illegal immigrants unable to provide Social Security numbers.
And just this week, a bill to allow undocumented immigrants to get licenses was effectively killed in the Iowa General Assembly. This followed the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling in February that undocumented immigrants weren’t entitled to licenses.
