Obtaining drivers licenses for illegal aliens is one of the key objectives of the open borders lobby.
While a drivers license is the de facto identification card in America, many states issue drivers licenses without requiring a valid Social Security numbers. A drivers license is in effect a "breeder document" that allows the bearer to open bank accounts, board planes, rent housing, and obtain credit.
Most importantly, a drivers license is a key document that allows the bearer to vote - even though that person is not a United States citizen. The Motor Voter Act of 1993 made it convenient to register to vote by requiring all states to allow all people who apply for a drivers license to also register to vote.
It should be noted that all of the 9/11 hijackers had drivers licenses or state-issued identification cards from "lenient" states.
Coloradoans are overwhelmingly against giving drivers licenses to illegals. A Rasmussen Report poll of likely voters in Colorado on December 12, 2007 found:
A few states give drivers licenses to illegal aliens.In 2003, California's Governor Davis signed into law a bill that would give illegals drivers licenses. This is likely the final act that contributed to his 2003 recall. Incoming Governor Schwarzenegger annulled the law, purportedly so that the electorate would not have a chance to vote on a referendum on the issue.
Of the five states allowing illegal aliens to have driving privileges, Illinois and Utah both prohibit these documents from being used for identification purposes.
New Mexico began issuing driver’s licenses to non-citizens in 2003. Then-Governor Bill Richardson had argued the policy would reduce the high number of uninsured drivers in the state. A decade later, national statistics confirmed that the law failed to live up to its expectations. New Mexico continues to rank near the top of the list of states with the most uninsured drivers, consistently registering at nearly twice the national average, according to the Insurance Research Council.
An estimated 49,000 illegal aliens reside in New Mexico, and since the law went into effect some 80,000 licenses have been issued to foreign nationals. New Mexico simply has opened their border further to encourage people to come there for drivers licenses.
Tennessee stopped issuing driving certificates to illegal aliens after investigations found rampant "driver's license tourism" where illegal aliens were being shuttled in from other states, using fake residency papers and sometimes bribing state workers to get the drivers licenses. The driving certificates were stamped with "not valid for identification", and were meant to improve driving safety by attempting to ensure that non-citizens living in the state were aware of traffic laws. Federal investigations found that illegal aliens were traveling hundreds of miles to get the certificates illegally.
Issuing licenses to illegal aliens clearly acts as a magnet, drawing in more and more illegal aliens. The number of licenses issued to foreign nationals in three of the states that currently grant driver's licenses to illegal aliens - Washington, New Mexico, and Utah - has risen 60 percent.
Colorado has stringent requirements that must be met in order to drive in the state.
Before applying for a license, an individual must:
Licensed Drivers Under 18 must adhere to the following restrictions:
Foreign Nationals living in Colorado who would like a driver’s license must meet the following requirements:
For more detailed information on obtaining a Colorado driver’s license, see the Department of Motor Vehicle website.
Insurance is required in order to operate a motor vehicle in Colorado. However, according to the DMV, it is astonishingly easy to obtain insurance and then cancel it, while continuing to drive.
An April 10, 2013 Denver Post article, Aurora driving school owner accused of granting licenses for bribes stated that:
An Aurora driving school owner and clerk face federal charges for running an alleged scheme in which they would grant paperwork for driver licenses to anyone — whether [or not] they passed the tests — in exchange for a bribe.
Stuart Bryan King, 52, of Centennial, owner of Little Lake Driving Academy, and Griselda Trevino De Valenzuela, 42, of Aurora, the driving academy's clerk, were arraigned in U.S. District Court in Denver on Wednesday on charges of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, Social Security fraud and Bribery, said Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the United States Attorney's Office in Colorado.
"There have been cases like this before, this is not unheard of," Dorschner said.
The two suspects are accused of charging $130 to $420 in cash to fraudulently issue passing test grades from August 2009 through November 2012, Dorschner said.
In some instances, King would go to the DMV and would tell people about his business while they were testing, according to the court documents.
In addition, the two are accused of filling out the written tests for applicants who could not speak, read or write English, according to Dorschner...
In one instance, a bus full of people who could not speak, read or write English came to the business from Missouri to trade out their Missouri identification cards — stolen identities — for valid Colorado licenses, Dorschner said.
A July 24, 2011 Denver Post article, Colorado laws invite abuse by private driving schools stated that:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says in 2010 that the cost of medical care and productivity losses associated with motor vehicle crash injuries was over $99 billion, or nearly $500, for each licensed driver in the United States.
A 2008 report by the Automobile Association of America states that according to the Federal Highway Administration, the per-person cost of traffic fatalities in 2005 dollars is $3.2 million and $68,170 for injuries. AAA estimates the cost of traffic crashes to be $166.7 billion. Costs include medical, emergency services, police services, property damage, lost productivity, and quality of life. Read AAA executive summary.
In 2011, 32,367 people died in motor vehicle crashes, down 1.9 percent from 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. In 2011, 2,217,000 people were injured in motor vehicle crashes. In 2010, 32,999 people died in motor vehicle crashes and an additional 2,239,000 people were injured. (From Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association.)
Pew study finds several problems in the state-based programs, Denver Post, November 26, 2015.
...About a dozen states, from Vermont to California, have run into a range of problems as they have launched state-based programs to expand driving privileges to millions of residents [illegal aliens] living in the shadows, according to a new report.
These challenges include allegations of fraud in Vermont, trouble with access in Colorado and high demand in California and Connecticut...
Since Colorado began issuing alternative licenses in August 2014, about 14,000 residents have taken advantage of the program. Although that figure is significant, it's still below the rate that Colorado expects — state officials have estimated it will issue about 78,000 licenses over three years.
Much of the trouble in Colorado has been financial. The legislature this year feuded for weeks over funding for the program, and the state was forced to cut from five to one the number of offices that issue the alternative licenses — which cost about $80 each, more than three times the cost of a regular license.
Ultimately, lawmakers agreed to spend about $513,000 on the program this year, and Colorado has since increased to three the number of offices that provide these licenses: Denver, Grand Junction and Colorado Springs.
From the report Deciding Who Drives, Pew Charitable Trusts, July 2015, updated September 3, 2015.
Overview
U.S. citizens and lawful immigrants can routinely obtain and renew driver's licenses, but some states have decided to allow unauthorized immigrants—those who do not have explicit permission from the U.S. government to reside in the country—to do so as well. As of the summer of 2015, 10 states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Vermont, and Washington) and the District of Columbia issue driver's licenses, or similar documents referred to by different names, to this population, and nearly 37 percent of unauthorized immigrants live in a jurisdiction where they may obtain a license ...
[...] As of August 2015 ... Colorado ... issue unauthorized immigrants [illegal aliens] an existing temporary license that certain lawfully present immigrants receive ...
Deferred action and driver's licenses
Federal initiatives that allow certain unauthorized immigrants to avoid deportation have an indirect impact on state driver's license laws and highlight the relationship between federal immigration policies and state laws and policies. On Nov. 20, 2014, President Barack Obama announced an executive action that could allow up to 4 million unauthorized immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, or who have children who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, to be eligible to avoid deportation (called "deferred action"). Under the program, they could get employment authorization documents and a Social Security number ...
Costs and revenue
...Colorado's fiscal note projected several one-time startup costs, including $390,000 to design and create new licenses with modern document security features, almost $36,000 to reprogram the driver's license technology system of the Department of Revenue, and smaller amounts for legal review and rule-making and to create and print forms to be signed by applicants ...
Colorado Alternative license
[Costs] $50.50 [Issued for] 3 years
Changes to computer systems and programming also may be needed to accommodate new documents or to reflect a new license design. Technology upgrades or new websites may be needed if a state is going to create or expand an appointment system. For example, Colorado reported that it undertook major programmatic and computer system changes to be able to accept new types of documents.The state's fiscal note estimated a onetime information technology cost of over $425,000 to reprogram its computer system ...
...The Colorado ... statutes require that unauthorized immigrant [illegal alien] applicants attest in writing that they will apply to legalize their immigration status as soon as they are eligible to do so ...
Proof of state residency
...For example, Colorado ... require unauthorized immigrants to show that they have lived in their jurisdictions for a specified period of time, ranging from six months to two years, before they can receive a license ...
Exceptions to the Rules
If applicants cannot provide required documentation, at least four states offer or intend to offer special procedures, sometimes called "exceptions processing." These procedures allow issuing agencies to consider—on a case-by-case basis—alternative documents if an individual cannot meet the specific requirements. The process for exceptions may be included in statute or in the regulatory process, or it may be an already existing procedure ...
... In Colorado ... these processes are available to applicants for all types of licenses ...
Fraud
Because they cannot obtain U.S. government-issued identity documents and Social Security numbers, some unauthorized immigrants may have previously used false identities, false addresses, or fraudulent documents to obtain driver's licenses for which they were not eligible. When those people apply for alternative licenses, the previous use of fraudulent documents often surfaces. States issuing alternative licenses should consider procedures for identifying and treating earlier fraudulent behavior while determining under what conditions a valid alternative license can be issued ...
Confidentiality
...Colorado's law does not include provisions regarding sharing information about immigration status. It does, however, specify that immigration status violations are federal offenses, and it prohibits state and local police officers from using an alternative license as a basis for arrest for immigration violations ...
Conclusion
Each of the 11 jurisdictions that have decided to issue driver's licenses to unauthorized immigrants [illegal aliens] has taken its own path from enacting law to issuing licenses. As this report shows, they make many significant decisions when designing and implementing license programs...