Proposal would eliminate ‘drive only' marking on licenses for undocumented immigrants

“It will make the people who have it more welcome in the state,” Carolina Bortolleto of the HUSKY 4 Immigrants Coalition said.

For nearly a decade, Connecticut has issued drive-only licenses for undocumented immigrants in the state.

“My family has the drive-only license. I remember back in 2015 when they first got the license, it really gave them a sense of safety,” Bortolleto said.

Since introduced in Connecticut, drive-only licenses have always had physical indicators to differentiate it from a standard one. Bortolleto said that sometimes, those distinguishing marks can create anxiety or even fear for those who have been issued a drive-only license.

“Many people are scared that the police officer will profile them and they’ll be in danger by showing that D-O,” she said.

This year, Governor Lamont is proposing a bill to eliminate those indicators, including the "DO" on the front side, to make a drive-only license look identical to a non-REAL ID.

“I want Connecticut to be a state that welcomes immigrants and is going in the right direction. That’s not doing what Florida is doing,” Bortolleto said.

Lamont’s proposal comes after Florida passed legislation last summer to no longer recognize drive-only licenses.

“I don’t know how this law here in Connecticut changes that except that purpose changing the look of the license, we’re trying to fool law enforcement officials in Florida,” Rep. Jason Perillo (R-Shelton) said.

Drive-only licenses are not a valid ID for voter registration, but those in opposition to Lamont’s proposal are concerned that the lack of differentiation could lead to confusion at the polls.

“It puts them in an uncomfortable position of inadvertently allowing someone to enter a poll site or register to vote if it’s same day registration or in our office, and they’re not actually eligible,” said Cara Gately, Registrar of Voters for the Town of Darien.

In response, Lamont called concerns over voting a bit of a red herring. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 19 states offer some sort of driver’s license to residents, regardless of immigration status.

Of those 19, Connecticut and Delaware are the only two that use a physically different license for those issued to undocumented immigrants.

“I’m not quite sure what the issue is. You gotta go to the Registrar of Voters, you got to get on that list to show you actually are who you are, you live where you live, so it’s not like somebody’s just going to take their ID and use it to falsify a vote,” Lamont said.

If passed, the drive-only license would still have a statement on it saying it is not valid for federal ID purposes, as is the case for the non-REAL ID.