Florida Law Invalidating Diver’s Licenses for Out-of-State Illegal Immigrants Gets Mixed Reviews

'Protection,' 'problem' or 'personal politics'

Northbound traffic on Interstate 95 flows northbound through Viera, FL., on Oct. 5, 2016.(Craig Bailey/Florida Today via AP)

A new Florida law defies a longstanding custom that states will honor each other’s driver’s licenses.

On May 10, 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1718 into law. The measure was passed by Florida’s legislators as a means of protecting the state and its citizens from the costly and sometimes dangerous effects of illegal immigration they believe has been exacerbated by the Biden administration’s weak border policies.

Along with making the use of E-Verify a mandatory measure for employers with 25 or more employees and establishing enforceable penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants, the new law prohibits local government agencies from issuing identification cards (IDs) to illegal immigrants and invalidates driver’s licenses issued to illegal aliens in other states.

Additionally, the law establishes that any illegal immigrant who knowingly uses a fake ID document to gain employment will face a third-degree felony.

If an illegal immigrant is pulled over for some violation, law enforcement officers are to issue a citation for driving without a license, a second-degree misdemeanor in Florida, punishable by 60 days in jail or a fine of up to $500.

Public Safety and National Security

Shari Rendall, director of State and Local Engagement for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), suggests the governor’s primary purpose in signing SB 1718 into law “is to encourage public safety and national security.”

As DeSantis said, “The Biden Border Crisis has wreaked havoc across the United States and has put Americans in danger.”

“In Florida, we will not stand idly by while the federal government abandons its lawful duties to protect our country,” DeSantis added.

Shari Rendall, director of State and Local Engagement for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. (Courtesy of Shari Rendall)

As Rendall explained, “People who enter through our back door and not our front door haven’t been vetted, and we don’t know their true identity.”

“Part of the REAL ID Act is to identify people,” she said.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says, “Secure driver’s licenses and identification documents are a vital component of our national security framework.”

The REAL ID Act, passed by Congress in 2005, enacted the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation that the Federal Government “set standards for the issuance of sources of identification, such as driver’s licenses.”

The deadline for all states to comply with REAL ID is May 7, 2025.

Rendall noted that: “The whole purpose of the 911 Commission was to ensure safety for the country. So giving driver’s licenses to illegal aliens not only undermines that law, it violates immigration laws we already have on the books. They are not authorized to be in this country, and they’re not entitled to driver’s licenses. By giving them a license, you are allowing them to continue to work live and sometimes vote in states in contradiction of federal law. It’s a slap in the face to legal immigrants who waited years to come to the United States and paid thousands of dollars to abide by our laws.”

“While not everyone who comes here illegally intends harm, you don’t know the intention of all of them,” she said.

Boarder Data

Data published by the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reveals that 98 individuals who attempted to cross America’s Southwest border in 2022 were on the government’s terrorist watchlist, an astounding increase from sixteen the previous year and six in 2018. For the first six months of 2023, another 96 terrorists have already tried to enter the United States illegally.

Terrorist Screening Data regarding encounters with illegal immigration at America's borders. (Screenshot/United States Customs and Border Protection)

CBP data regarding “Non-Citizen Arrests“ shows 12,028 illegal immigrants were arrested for crimes, including 2,239 for possession and/or trafficking of drugs, 1,142 for assault, battery or domestic violence, 62 for homicide or manslaughter, and 1,614 for driving under the influence.

Of the 110,298 Title 8 apprehensions CBP reported for April, 53,824 were released.

Florida’s New Law Versus Other State Laws

Shalyn Fluharty is the Executive Director for Americans for Immigrant Justice, a non-profit law firm based in Miami that “fights for justice for immigrants.”

Fluharty told The Epoch Times, “the new law is certainly a problem” for an agency like hers and other employers throughout the state who may have employees with provisions to work in the United States “but have driver’s licenses from other states and they’ve relocated to Florida to work.”

Shalyn Fluharty, Executive Director for Americans for Immigrant Justice. (Courtesy of Shalyn Fluharty)

If someone has “relocated” to Florida from another state and identifies that Florida residence as their primary residence, they are subject to Florida Law, which states: “If you have a driver’s license from another state, you need to obtain a Florida driver’s license within 30 days of residency at a local DMV office.”

Fluharty also said the new law “raises some perplexing questions as to what it means for Florida to be a state that doesn’t recognize laws that have been put into effect by other states and what that means for our situation as a Republic, where you can freely travel from one state to another once you’re in the United States.”

“It complicates our general understanding of movement within our country,” she said.

As explained by the National Conference of State Legislators in March, “states issue driver’s licenses under the constitutional authority of the 10th Amendment.”

The 10th Amendment states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”

The laws enacted in other states are now in direct conflict with Florida’s new law.

Along with the District of Columbia, 19 states have enacted laws that permit illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses if the applicant can provide proof of citizenship in another country and proof of current residency in the state.

In 2022, Rhode Island extended driver’s licenses privileges to illegal immigrants without proof of lawful presence.

Lawmakers in Massachusetts overrode Gov. Charlie Baker’s veto of SB 4822/HB 4805 in 2022, effectively permitting those without proof of lawful presence to obtain driver’s licenses.

In 2023, Minnesota’s legislators passed a law making the Gopher State the most recent to allow individuals to obtain a driver’s license without proof of lawful presence.

The Epoch Times contacted the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV), asking how the state plans to implement the new law.

Director of Communications Molly Best told The Epoch Times by email that “FLHSMV is in the process of working on an implementation plan for the new law, and it would be inappropriate to comment until it is finalized.”

“If an illegal immigrant is found driving in Florida in violation of any state statute, they are subject to the applicable penalties for that statute,” she said.

The new law also tasks FLHSMV with the responsibility of maintaining a list of out-of-state licenses that would be considered “invalid” on its website. Asked where that information could be found, Best said, “That information will be available upon implementation.”

‘It’s Already Federal Law’

Joe Rajkovacz, governmental affairs and communications director for the Western States Trucking Association, recently reported for Western Transportation News that “Spanish language social media exploded” in the days following the passage of SB 1718. He received over a dozen calls from news outlets inquiring about threats by Latino truckers to impose a service boycott for the Sunshine State in protest of the law.

Rajkovacz asked the reporters: “Exactly what part of the law are they objecting to?”

None had an answer.

After reading the law, Rajkovacz said the only thing he found that “would anger some” is the part about prohibiting undocumented immigrants from operating a vehicle in the State of Florida “if his or her driver’s license is issued by another state, which exclusively provides such a license to undocumented immigrants who are unable to prove lawful presence in the United States when the licenses are issued.”

However, as Rajkovacz noted, it’s already “illegal in the U.S. to issue a commercial driver’s license (CDL) to anyone who is not a U.S. citizen or doesn’t possess legal presence to be in the United States. That’s federal, not state choice.”

“I had to write a pretty long article about this from a trucking standpoint, and I even cited federal law,” Rajkovacz told The Epoch Times. “I was scratching my head, wondering why these particular truck drivers were so upset. None of it makes any sense. It’s already federal law. A state cannot issue a commercial driver’s license to people who aren’t legally present in the United States. Period. End of story. I even include a screenshot of 49 CFR § 383.71.”

Requirement No. 5 under Code of Federal Regulations § 383.71 states that a “person must provide to the State proof of citizenship or lawful permanent residency as specified in Table 1 of this section or obtain a non-domiciled CLP as specified in paragraph (f) of this section.”

“This is nothing more than a case of personal politics,” Rajcovacz said. “I don’t just throw my opinion out there. It’s the law. If they’re upset about Florida not recognizing driver’s licenses that were issued to someone without legal presence, then I suggest they don’t go to Florida. ”

Illegal Immigrants and Driving

A danger cited frequently to justify strengthening driving laws is the one posed by illegal immigrant drunk drivers.

One of the few known studies of drunk driving among illegal immigrants—published on Oct. 29, 2015—found that 67 of the 467 Hispanics that immigrated to Miami-Dade County were here illegally. The study also revealed that illegal immigrants are more prone to binge drinking than legal immigrants and are “less likely to understand DUI laws, and less likely to perceive the risks associated with DUI.”

In July 2021, the Cato Institute noted that “there is little research on illegal immigrants and drunk driving.”

This is likely due, in part, to the federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, which limits the authority of state issuing agencies to share personal information about license holders.

The mandate in Florida’s new law tasking FLHSMV with the responsibility of maintaining a list of out-of-state licenses that would be considered “invalid” on its website could violate that federal law if that out-of-state license number can be traced to identify the driver.

The New Law and Florida’s Tourism

As previously reported by The Epoch Times, DeSantis touted the continued record growth of Florida’s tourism industry in the third quarter of 2022.

Estimates from Visit Florida (pdf) showed that Florida welcomed 35.1 million visitors between July and September 2022, nearly a 7 percent increase from the same period in 2021. It was the fifth consecutive quarter where tourism surpassed pre-pandemic levels.

The Epoch Times asked Rendall how the new law might affect Florida’s tourism status.

“I stand by the fact that the purpose of the bill is not to discourage tourism but to shut off the magnet for illegal immigration and to ensure that those who are given a license are not a public safety or national security risk,” she said. “When you have DMV’s from other states issuing driver’s licenses, they don’t necessarily have the expertise or ability to validate documents from other counties, and any process that doesn’t verify the authenticity of the applicant’s identity can easily be used to procure one. Even though states claim to conduct background checks on applicants, they’re simply unequipped to verify the authenticity of certain foreign and easily forgeable documents.”