This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Six years ago, Utah created a driving privilege card for illegal aliens. The reason was to promote highway safety and to try to ensure that all drivers carry insurance.
The Legislature wanted to do the utmost to make certain that everyone driving on the state's roads, including illegal aliens, has had driver safety training and passed standard driving exams in English.
Now, as part of the hysteria to eliminate illegal immigration, Sen. Stephen Urquhart, R-St. George, is sponsoring a bill to repeal Utah's driving privilege card. That would be a foolish mistake and a step backward in the state's long efforts to promote driving safety.
Urquhart argues that the driving privilege card acts as de facto official state identification, enables illegal aliens to commit identity fraud and serves as a magnet for illegal immigration. He says that although the law specifies that the driving privilege card is not official ID, and the card says so, literally on its face, that makes no difference.
He claims that it is easy for people in this country illegally to counterfeit the birth certificates and identity documents from their home countries that the Driver License Division requires of people who apply for a driving privilege card.
Urquhart is right that some illegal immigrants commit document fraud, and that counterfeit Social Security cards and other phony ID are a problem. We don't doubt that some people could use these documents to obtain driving privilege cards illegally. But the same is true of regular driver licenses obtained by citizens.
Audits show, by the way, that holders of privilege cards keep their insurance current at about the same rate as citizens with driver licenses. The number of privilege cards has held steady at about 41,000 in recent years, which belies the argument that it is a magnet for illegal immigration. In fact, census figures suggest that the number of illegal immigrants in Utah has declined during the economic recession.
Ironically, Urquhart has drafted a substitute bill that makes more sense than the one he is running. It would require applicants for a driving privilege card to be fingerprinted, and have that biometric identifier compared to criminal databases. That would actually create an identity that would be difficult to counterfeit, though it would be expensive and that could deter participation if immigrants had to pay for it.
Instead, Urquhart would kill the whole program, eliminating the incentive for undocumented people to get driver training and buy insurance. That would not make Utah safer.