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SALT LAKE CITY – Starting Friday, illegal immigrants will have to submit to a criminal background check and be fingerprinted — all at an additional cost — to obtain or renew a driver privilege card.
The new requirements for the card, created by lawmakers six years ago to give non-citizens a way to obtain auto insurance, are raising concerns among the state's undocumented workers, according to a community activist.
If we're going to do it for one group, then this should be done for all. I think the rest of our population would be screaming and hollering.
–Activist Tony Yapias
"Most people are saying, 'They are treating us like criminals,'" said Tony Yapias, Proyecto Latino de Utah director. "I think initially, it's going to discourage a lot of people from renewing their drivers privilege cards."
Yapias said the cardholders are suspicious about how the information they'll now have to provide the government will be used. He suggested the new requirements be extended to Utah driver's licenses.
"If we're going to do it for one group, then this should be done for all," Yapias said. "I think the rest of our population would be screaming and hollering."
But Sen. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, said he plans next session to try again to get rid of the driver privilege cards. His bill to eliminate the cards was substituted in the final days of the 2011 Legislature to instead just make it tougher to get them.
"I think they're a bad idea. We empower illegal aliens with the cards," Urquhart said. "My argument would be if they're here illegally, we shouldn’t give them a driver privilege card and they shouldn’t' be driving."
Even though the cards were never intended to serve as legal identification, Urquhart said that's how they're being used. "This is a failed experiment," he said.
Lawmakers are already looking at revisiting another illegal immigration measure passed last session, HB116. Delegates to the recent state GOP convention backed a resolution calling for the repeal of the legislation, which would establish a state guest worker program.
"There's a lot of frustration out there," Urquhart said.
Senate Minority Leader Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake, said it would be a mistake to eliminate the driver privilege card because that would encourage people to drive without insurance.
And, Romero said, the state would be worse off "having individuals not provide some commitment back into the community and some recognition of where they reside."
The state's Bureau of Criminal Identification is already in the process of adding 10 new employees to the current staff of about 80 to handle the increased workload, bureau chief Alice Moffat said.
Those seeking to obtain or renew a card will have to go to the bureau's offices in Taylorsville or one of four other law enforcement locations statewide to be photographed and fingerprinted and start the criminal background check.
Moffat said the bureau will charge applicants $30 but the other agencies' fees may be different. There is also an additional $25 charge by the state Driver License Division to cover the cost of the criminal background check.
That's on top of the $25 driver privilege cardholders are already paying to annually renew their cards. The initial price to obtain the card is the same as a driver's license, $25 for adults.
We empower illegal aliens with the cards. My argument would be if they're here illegally, we shouldn't give them a driver privilege card and they shouldn't' be driving.
–Sen. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George
Moffat said the fingerprints collected will be kept on file after applicants are screened in eight western states for felony arrests or outstanding warrants.
Applicants with felony arrests will be turned over to federal immigration authorities, she said, and those with warrants, to the issuing law enforcement agency.
Because the applicants fingerprints remain on file, she said future criminal arrests or warrants issued would trigger similar notifications.
"We don't have an opinion one way or another whether it's a good thing or a bad thing," Moffat said. "We're just doing as the Legislature mandated that we do."
Jill Laws, deputy director of the Driver License Division of the state Department of Public Safety, said letters have been mailed to the state approximately 41,000 driver privilege cardholders explaining the change.
"At this point, we're just getting a lot of questions about what the process is and what happens to the prints after we collect them," Laws said. "It's basically concern about what's going to happen with those fingerprints."
Information about the new requirements and a list of law enforcement agencies that will handle the background checks is available online, at publicsafety.utah.gov/dld.
Email:lroche@ksl.com
