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On Friday, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval signed a bill into law authorizing driving privilege cards for undocumented immigrants. Sandoval is a Republican with Mexican ancestry, and his state has a large and growing Hispanic community which is supposed to be more than 25 percent of the state’s population.
Sandoval said in a statement, “Allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver’s privilege card will increase the number of drivers on Nevada’s roads that are insured and aware of traffic rules and regulations.”
However, Sandoval specified that the cards would not be accepted for the purposes of identification and applicants will have to pass a driving test and would need to obtain insurance.
The law, which is scheduled to take effect from 2014, would allow undocumented immigrants to use their foreign birth certificates for obtaining driving cards. The cards would be valid for a year.
Also last week, on Thursday, Connecticut’s legislature approved a similar bill for undocumented immigrants.
While undocumented immigrants are already allowed to obtain driving privileges in New Mexico, Washington and Utah, other states like Maryland Illinois and Oregon adopted similar laws this year.
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It is not yet known how far this measure is going to help illegal immigrants as such laws do not grant any privileges, except the right to drive legally as benefits. However, issuing driver’s privileges makes it easier for the system to learn about those who are residing in the country illegally.
States remain divided over the issue and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is known to have objected to issuing legal driving privileges even to undocumented immigrants who qualify for temporary legal status according to new federal programs.
