Approved to defer immigration, 17 states have issued driver's licenses

Approved to defer immigration, 17 states have issued driver's licenses Currently, only three states in the country issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, after the Obama administration began to implement the policy of deferred deportation of young illegal immigrants...

Approved to defer immigration, 17 states have issued driver's licenses Currently, only three states in the country issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. After the Obama administration began to implement the policy of suspending the deportation of young illegal immigrants, 17 more states decided to issue driver's licenses to qualified young illegal immigrants. However, some states with serious illegal immigration problems still refuse them to apply for driver's licenses. Stateline.org, which belongs to the Piyou Center, said that states have rarely discussed the issue of issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants in recent years, and they are all waiting for the federal government to take action. But as the January 15 next year deadline for implementing the federal government’s Real ID law approaches, the issue of illegal immigrant driver’s licenses has resurfaced. States that will allow illegal immigrants who qualify for the federal moratorium on deportation to apply for driver's licenses include California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. However, six states - Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi and Nebraska - announced that they would deny driver's license applications to illegal immigrants who have been exempted from deportation. The federal government has so far agreed to suspend the deportation of 53,000 young illegal immigrants. Immigration Policy Research estimates that 1.76 million people across the country are eligible for deferred action. Janice Kopat, an attorney at the National Center for Immigration Studies, believes that suspending deportations and issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants undermines the REAL ID law, which is designed to strictly regulate driver's licenses. She said that illegal immigrants need to register in the federal immigration database, and states that do not verify their immigration status in the database are not complying with the REAL ID law and may be involved in identity fraud. The federal government has so far not clarified whether the moratorium on deportation for young illegal immigrants will authorize states to issue them driver's licenses, nor whether the REAL ID law prohibits issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Governor Brewer announced that Arizona will not allow people who are exempt from deportation to work in the United States to apply for driver's licenses. According to the laws of this state island, people applying for a driver's license must present valid proof of residence in the United States.