New laws change license status

By Jack Beeson
Adelante Staff

Regulating who can have a driver's license has become a hot-button issue in state and national politics recently. Citing the fact that the terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks boarded planes using driver’s licenses, some lawmakers decided that stricter standards for issuing driver's licenses were necessary.

Recently two pieces of legislation — the Intelligence Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act and the Real ID Act — have targeted driver's license requirements. The Intelligence Reform Act was passed by Congress and signed into law in December. The Real ID Act was passed last Tuesday and was expected to go into effect in three years.

Both pieces of legislation make it harder for immigrants, especially those who are undocumented, to obtain driver’s licenses. In addition, the Missouri Senate passed a bill last July that requires anyone applying for a driver's license to prove lawful presence in the United States.

Lawful Presence
Beginning July 1, all applicants for Missouri driver’s licenses will have to prove they can legally reside in the United States in order to be issued a license. U.S. citizens will be able to do this in much the same way as before, by using a passport, birth certificate, or other document from the primary list of identification.

Non-U.S. citizens will have to present documents such as valid foreign passports with U.S. visas stating the period of time they can legally be in the United States. Patricia Churchill, General Counsel for the Missouri Department of Revenue, said that driver’s licenses issued to non-U.S. citizens would only be valid for the time they are allowed to be in the U.S. In the case of students or others who have indefinite limits, the driver’s license will be issued for one year and have to be renewed every year thereafter.

The Intelligence Reform Act
The act establishes federal standards for driver's licenses and what states can accept as primary forms of identification. The standards will be determined through a “negotiated rule-making process,” in which representatives from each state’s driver’s license bureaus, elected state officials, members of the Department of Homeland Security, and other “interested parties” discuss what the rules should be. This process is scheduled to conclude sometime in 2006. The National Immigration Law Center has applied to represent immigration issues in this rule-making process.

The Real ID Act
Some politicians feel that the Intelligence Reform Act doesn't do enough because it does not specifically ban illegal immigrants from obtaining a driver’s license. The Real ID Act goes beyond the provisions in the Intelligence Reform Act and tells states what documents they must require in order to issue a driver's license.

The bill was the object of strong criticism from many groups across the country because of its harsh restrictions on who can obtain a license and also because of the complications it was expected to cause for states that would be required to verify all documents and coordinate their licensing practices with every other state in the country (and, some say, other countries).

Michele Waslin, Director of Immigration Policy Research at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest Hispanic civil-rights organization in the United States, said that the bill’s requirement that states accept a valid foreign passport as documentation would hurt people who don't fit into one of the most common legal statuses.

“The bill is poorly written and doesn't take into account people waiting for extensions and others who are here lawfully,” she said.

What to do
If you are unsure of your legal status or what documents you need in order to be issued a driver’s license, it is recommended that you talk to a reputable immigration lawyer. Applying for a new license or renewing a license you were issued before tougher requirements came into effect may cause problems for you and could even get you arrested if you cannot prove legal status in the United States.

For help finding an immigration lawyer, contact:
Legal Aid of Western Missouri
1125 Grand Blvd., #1900
Kansas City, MO 64106
(816) 474-6750

For an online Missouri Driver Guide (available in Spanish and English), go to: http://www.dor.mo.gov/forms.htm
(scroll down to Driver's Licensing and click on the desired link)