Can unauthorized immigrants legally drive? More states say yes.

Scared to drive without a license in her Colorado mountain town, Laura would walk everywhere last year with her two young children in tow. Whether headed to the school, gym, or grocery store, the unauthorized immigrant from Colombia couldn’t risk getting caught behind the wheel. 

During one walk in April of last year, exposed to the cold, she saw her first grade son’s small ears turn purple. 

“I remember that I was crying at home. ... It was hard at times,” says Laura, whose real name is not being used for privacy reasons. She knew she needed a car.

After earning a license last fall, Laura says she feels “useful” now – “like I can do whatever I need.” She drives around Gunnison County daily, including to work as a housekeeper and excursions to the playground. Laura chauffeurs her son and daughter there on a recent afternoon, the pair chattering away in the back seat. 

“Right now, I’m saving the world,” says her 8-year-old son, engrossed in a Spider-Man game.

The United States hasn’t authorized Laura to stay, but the state has allowed her to drive. Colorado has extended the right to drive regardless of immigration status for 10 years – and some states have done so for even longer. In all, 19 states and the District of Columbia have laws that allow the issuance of licenses to unauthorized immigrants, including Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where new laws went into effect last month. Minnesota’s new law begins on Oct. 1. 

Advocates have long made a safety argument – that the absence of a license hasn’t kept unauthorized immigrants off the road, so it’s better to have them certified. Supporters also say a simple traffic stop without ID could result in deportation and family separation.

At the same time, some other states are home to powerful opposition to the idea of allowing these licenses, arguing they reward illegal immigration and could undermine national security. In Republican-led Florida, a new law refuses recognition for certain out-of-state licenses issued exclusively to unauthorized immigrants. 

Meanwhile, license or not, the lives of an estimated 11 million people in the U.S. – roughly 3% of the population – remain precarious with various challenges to legalizing their status without major federal immigration reform. States, however, have long taken widely varying approaches to providing or limiting access to benefits like licenses. In parsing the debate, it can be helpful to distinguish between immigration policy and immigrant policy, says Muzaffar Chishti, senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute.

“Immigration policy decides who do we let in and who do we kick out,” which is the federal government’s role, he says.

On the other hand, immigrant policies have to do with integration, like the issuance of driver’s licenses by states, he adds.

The question then becomes: Once they’re here, “how do you treat them?”

Extending and restricting licenses 

Though the enforcement of national immigration law is primarily a federal matter, states can extend or restrict privileges to individuals who can’t prove their lawful presence. Examples include limited health care, college tuition, and driver’s licenses – often with limits on use for identification purposes. 

Florida has placed new rules and penalties around the employment of unauthorized immigrants, as well as their transport into the state – the subject of a lawsuit filed by immigrant advocacy groups last month. In effect since July 1, the new law grants the state “the most ambitious anti-illegal immigration laws in the country,” stated Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s also running for president. 

The Sunshine State also no longer recognizes certain out-of-state driver’s licenses issued exclusively to these individuals. Florida currently lists licenses from Connecticut and Delaware as newly invalid, after removing Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Vermont in recent weeks due to confusion around those states’ license policies. 

The new license law invites two questions, says Rick Su, professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law. 

“One is, how much effect will it actually have at the end of the day, as opposed to just being sort of a political move?” he says. “And then the second is, if it does have effect, and is zealously enforced, does this open up a separate legal question?”

For instance, it would become more legally complicated if Florida decided to target out-of-state license types that weren’t exclusively reserved for unauthorized immigrants. At that point, adds Mr. Su, “you are excluding and punishing anyone from that state.”

Drivers “more at ease”

Supporters of letting unauthorized immigrants legally drive stress benefits for community safety and well-being. Aware of several driving-related deportations in the early 2000s, Flora Archuleta joined fellow activists pushing for the permission in Colorado, which was later granted in 2013.

“People were so afraid of driving, even taking their kids to school,” says Ms. Archuleta, executive director of the San Luis Valley Immigrant Resource Center. (The Supreme Court has ruled that states generally can’t deny public school to children of unauthorized immigrants.)

Today, those drivers are “much more at ease,” says Ms. Archuleta. They’re purchasing car insurance, which is required for all Colorado car owners like Laura. 

Some research also seems to support the road-safety argument. A California study and reporting in Connecticut suggest a link between these laws and reduced risk of hit-and-run crashes. 

Still, there are caveats related to federal intervention. At least seven states have given personal driver information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in recent years, a 2021 Center for Public Integrity investigation found. 

That collaboration isn’t guaranteed, however. In its fiscal year 2022, the Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles received two requests from ICE, which were both denied “in accordance with state law” that concerns personal identifying information, wrote Derek Kuhn, a spokesperson for the Colorado agency, in an email. 

In response to a request for comment, an ICE spokesperson wrote that the agency “is able to employ and leverage various databases and forms of technology under its broad statutory authority in the furtherance of criminal investigations, and as appropriate, for interior civil immigration enforcement.” The spokesperson did not address the Colorado requests directly, citing “operational security.”

“Immigrants have to be mindful that there is some database that the state has access to,” says Mr. Chishti of the Migration Policy Institute. And if states share that with the federal government, he says, those drivers become “vulnerable.”

Easier to be in the U.S. illegally? 

Traditionally conservative sectors have backed these driving privileges for safety and practicality reasons, including Idaho farmers and Massachusetts police chiefs. Still, many critics argue the laws condone the unauthorized presence of immigrants who may have originally entered the U.S. without vetting.

“If you want to discourage people from violating the law, you don’t provide them with documents that make it easy for them to be in the country illegally,” says Ira Mehlman, media director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Additionally, states will often accept foreign documents as part of license applications, which to him raises concerns around identity verification. 

Near Providence, Rhode Island, Krysta’s life is far removed from the political fray. Krysta, who asked that her last name not be published, for privacy, has tried to reserve an appointment with the DMV to pursue a driver’s privilege card since the law in the state began July 1, but slots have filled up.

The Guatemalan has driven unlicensed for 16 years to and from work, medical appointments, and school, careful to avoid crashes and never venturing far from home. A license will not only relieve her but also her three children, U.S. citizens who’ve lived in fear of their mother’s potential deportation.  

The first thing she’ll do with her card in hand?

“Celebrate,” she says. “Take my kids and husband and get away. Drive far, take a trip.”

Troy Sambajon contributed reporting from Boston.