SEATTLE — The number of states where illegal immigrants can still obtain driver’s licenses has been on a gradual downshift in recent years, leaving only four that still allow it — including Washington.
Hawaii and New Mexico also don’t require motorists to prove they are in the U.S. legally before issuing them a driver’s license or ID card, and Utah uses a two-tiered system that grants illegal immigrants driver cards that can’t be used as ID.
Washington holds its place in this small and diminishing fraternity despite persistent efforts to change state law. This year, for the fourth year in a row, a citizens’ initiative to deny driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants failed to collect enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
And in the Legislature, the most recent bill to exclude illegal immigrants from obtaining driver’s licenses was introduced last year but never received a single hearing.
A driver’s license is the most basic form of identification — used for everything from applying for government services to boarding domestic airline flights. The state Department of Licensing issues more than 1 million each year.
Many believe Washington’s law remains unchanged in large part because the state’s agricultural industry employs large numbers of illegal immigrants who must get themselves to and from work.
They also cite a more accommodating attitude in Washington toward all immigrants and characterize Republican attempts over the years to tighten licensing requirements as mostly symbolic.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Chris Gregoire said she would sign a bill that denies driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants if it came across her desk, but said the Legislature would have to initiate the change.
That’s unlikely to happen anytime soon, because House Democrats say they don’t see a problem with the state’s licensing program.
Sen. Joseph Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, who sponsored legislation in 2008 to change the law, does.
He thinks that screening motorists for such an important form of ID “should be a no-brainer — one of the easy things we can do to shore up security.”
His position squares with that of the federal Department of Homeland Security, which says that verifying a person’s identity, Social Security number and legal presence in the U.S. makes it more difficult for criminals to obtain state-issued ID cards.
Zarelli thinks taking on the driver’s-license question in this state raises a greater immigration debate — one “those on the other side of the aisle are not willing to have.”
“It’s less about security and more about the legal-vs.-illegal issue for a lot of Democrats,” Zarelli said.
Only four years ago, illegal immigrants could obtain driver’s licenses in 10 states — including neighboring Oregon.
But Gov. Ted Kulongoski ordered that changed last year after federal officials told him Oregon had become a magnet for driver’s-license fraud.
Washington was among 13 states that opted out of complying with REAL ID, calling it an unfunded mandate.
