Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I'm not sure I see what the connection is between driving licences and immigration status? In the UK, when you apply for a driving licence, you have to prove that "you are you", but you can do that with any document that has your name on it - eg an electrcity bill; there's certainly no check that you are a British citizen, and nor would there be, because you don't need to be a British citizen to have a UK driving licence.
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Increasingly in the US the states are requiring you to prove your citizenship or immigration status as well as just your resident status when you apply for a driver's license. However, most states still insist that anyone moving to the state must get a local (i.e. state) license within 10 to 30 days of taking up residence in the state. A few states have decided that it's better to get drivers registered (among other things to make sure they have insurance) than to play immigration patrol - but the federal government is trying to fix that.
One wonders, however, how an Arizona policeman would deal with the issue of an "obvious" foreigner with a valid driving license. Will they now require the states to indicate on driving licenses whether the person has their US citizenship or not? Or will they just take it on faith that if the state of XYZ issued a license, that the person's immigration status is in order?