Over half of new California driver’s licenses go to undocumented immigrants | Hacker News Reader

Over half of new California driver’s licenses go to undocumented immigrants

sacbee.com

1 pointnotsony5 comments

1.1 million have applied so far. I wonder for reporting purposes if the people who successfully obtain their license also have their status change from 'undocumented' to 'documented'?

> The number of applications from undocumented immigrants ballooned to 687,000 as of June, and immigrants in California illegally have outpaced other recipients. Of the 759,000 total licenses the DMV has issued, 397,000 – or 52 percent – have gone to the undocumented. More than 1.1 million undocumented immigrants have taken the written test, and another 436,000 have taken the driving test.

I don't understand - California "issued as a license to drive a motor vehicle; it does not establish eligibility for employment, voter registration, or public benefits." Why would the acquisition of a state license for driving affect one's federal immigration status?

For example, an 'undocumented' person in California can get other licenses, like a fishing license, by presenting "A foreign government-issued photo identification" (see https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=93497&inl... ). What makes a driving license special in federal eyes?

Driver's licenses are domestic government-issued photo identification. This secondary use is as good as a passport in a lot of situations.

As a modifier, most driver's licenses can be used as a form of domestic government-issued photo identification. States also issue id cards, which might be used by those who cannot drive or afford to take the driving test. In addition, some driver's licenses, like the Pennsylvania license for people with religious objections to being photographed, don't have a photo.

Those details, aside, my question remains even if there's a switch from state issued driver's license to state issued identification - why do you think a state-issued identity document affects one's federal immigration status?

When I was in high school, we had a German exchange student. He got the license so he could drive in Germany under the US license, as otherwise Germany has a higher minimum age to drive. The validity of his license was not tied to his immigration status. If this thesis - that holding a US driver's license somehow makes it easier to change one's immigration status from "undocumented" to "documented" - is true, then problems should have arisen decades ago for people with valid state licenses who later returned to the US without first getting permission from the US, or who overstayed a visit.

I'm not aware of that happening, but I haven't looked hard. Still, if it really is an issue then we should see historical examples, and they would have been brought up by opponents to the new law, so I expect we would have heard about them by now. Do you know of problems?

I don't know, I was just trying to answer the question about why driver's licenses might be special. The left hand documenting itself doesn't mean that it talks to the right hand, but if they do decide to talk then the info is there.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com