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Licenses for Undocumented Immigrants: How Will it Work?
It'll be at least ten months before undocumented immigrants in Illinois will be able to apply for TVDLs, short for Temporary Driver's Licenses. Between now and then, there are still quite a few kinks to be worked out.
"When an individual applies for a TVDL, they will have to make an appointment in advance," Secretary of State's Office representative Henry Haupt said. "They will then go to a specifically designated facility."
Haupt said that facility hasn't been determined, yet. The list of documents required to get one of those licenses, however, has been worked out.
"We'll send the documents to a local, centralized location which will be Springfield where all the documents are authenticated," Haupt said.
Because of that process, undocumented immigrants won't be able to come in one day and go home with the new license. It'll take some time, and there's also the issue of insurance.
"They're still analyzing risks to determine if really it's something they want to write," former state Sen. Larry Bomke, who works in the insurance industry, said.
The reason for the hesitation , he said, is credit scoring. According to Bomke, a partner at Hollis Neff & Bomke, about 99 percent of insurance companies now use credit scores to determine premiums.
"If you're someone that doesn't have a social security card, have not established yourself, there's really no credit score for you," Bomke said. "That alone could cause your premium to be substantially higher."
With that said, it may not be cheap, but it's still possible. Dr. Hinda Seif, an anthropologist and professor at UIS whose interests include Mexican migration, said the majority of undocumented immigrants want to obey the law.
"Being able to drive legally is an extremely important issue for so many immigrants in this state," Seif said. "And they will do anything they can legally to get what they need to have this document."
To get this license, immigrants need documents like a passport from their home country and a letter of ineligibility for social security. Seif said it is all possible to obtain, even from here in the states. Furthermore, Seif said immigrants on the path to citizenship in this country are likely collecting those documents already.
According to Haupt, there are already Illinois driving manuals in at least three languages: English, Spanish, and Polish.
There's a lot of concern about these licenses encouraging identity theft. Haupt said his office doesn't think it'll be an issue since the licenses are for driving only and cannot be used as identification.
