Do You Need a Driver’s License?
Licenses are official documents used to prove who you are and can be used for various purposes, Do You Need Drivers License such as opening bank accounts, enrolling in school classes, and qualifying for government benefits. A license provides important identity verification when opening bank accounts, enrolling in classes, or applying for government assistance.
It helps prevent suspicious activity by law enforcement officials, who check its validity against their database records for criminal history records that may exist against you. Having one also protects drivers against criminal activities since their records will be checked against this database containing criminal history information on you.
Some individuals oppose licensing immigrants due to fears it will open a gateway for identity fraud and other crimes; however, this may not necessarily be the case since illegal immigrants who commit serious offenses represent only a small proportion of their overall population.
The federal government does not grant driving privileges or licenses directly, while many states do. Many of these states are home to undocumented immigrants with differing populations, and some have recently implemented new laws allowing certain individuals to receive limited driving-privilege licenses or ID cards for limited driving privileges. The graph below depicts where states with more concentrated populations of undocumented residents currently stand on this issue.
The data was sourced from public records published by the Department of Motor Vehicles. For some states, appointment scheduling must be scheduled ahead of time in order to avoid long wait times, while other permit walk-in appointments are at certain driver’s license offices.
