President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program have provided undocumented immigrants with the necessary paperwork to obtain driver’s licenses in eligible states but, according to a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts, obstacles remain as some states have challenged the executive actions and the DACA recipients’ hopes to legally drive in the States.
“If these [DACA and DAPA] programs go into effect, many more people could receive deferred action and states could again face choices about whether to issue them driver’s licenses,” the report stated.
The study explained that some 37 percent of undocumented immigrants reside in jurisdictions that grant them the legal standing to obtain a driver’s license, and as some states seek to expand their programs to extend licensing opportunities to undocumented immigrants, the study recommended they consider potential revenue from application fees and accuracy of projected undocumented immigrants who will apply and eventually renew licenses, among other changes. States are ultimately responsible for determining, first, if they will issue drivers’ licenses to undocumented immigrants and, later, the standards through which would do so.
“Even without specific new legislation to extend license eligibility to unauthorized immigrants, states that issue licenses to deferred action recipients then could see increases in the number of people eligible for these licenses,” the study read.
But while the methods vary for determining if issuing driver’s licenses, the debate surrounding the matter has picked up legislative steam across the country. It will be interesting to see if this enters the immigration dialogue that has so far dominated the campaign rhetoric for the presidential election.
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