There is a big debate across the U.S., especially in border states like California and New Mexico, about allowing illegal immigrants to acquire driver’s licenses. The most common argument I hear against allowing for these licenses is that one should be a citizen in order to get a license so that we know you are here legitimately. To that argument I say, a driver’s license in no way legitimizes one’s being in the U.S. because a license simply denotes that one has demonstrated the ability to properly operate a motor vehicle in the state in which he/she resides. Furthermore, allowing anyone of proper age who can pass a driving test the ability to get a license will at least put everyone on the road legally into some sort of state database, which means if that driver is getting tickets and breaking the law there will be an easily accessible record for law enforcement to use if needed. To that response I sometimes hear the argument that we need to institute some sort of national ID card to track everyone. My problem with that idea is that we already have a national ID card and it is called a passport.
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I think the driver’s license debate misses the point of what a driver’s license actually represents. For whatever reason (likely largely due to the U.S. car culture) driver’s licenses are overused as a validating form of ID. For instance, fairly recently my license expired while I was waiting for the new one in the mail, which left me with and expired card and a piece of paper saying a new one is on the way. During this period I went out in my hometown the day after my birthday. At one bar in particular I was denied entry by an idiot door guy (this guy has been a repeat offender in stupidity so this isn’t the only reason I call him an idiot) based on the fact that my license was expired even though it is obviously a real license and the picture is me and the expiration was less than 24 hours ago. The situation was quickly cleared up by the bar tender and I was allowed entry but the real question is why does a document that says I know how to drive and have properly renewed proof of that ability hold any bearing on my right to drink alcohol when I am of legal age to do so? This question becomes even more confounding when one considers that if I had my passport with me at the time this occurred, I would likely have been allowed entry into the bar immediately because the passport was valid (even though the picture on the passport was significantly older than the picture on my license, which is really the only reason a passport expires) at a time my license was expired. My point here is simply that all forms of ID have a specific use but some are forced to pull double duty where the validity of one set of information should be ignored. In other words don’t assign extra meaning to an ID where there is none. A driver’s license means that you can drive pure and simple.
(Side note: if we are to start carrying our passports everywhere, like travel papers in Nazi Germany, can we please update them to be in card form or at least a tiny book that will fit in a standard wallet. It is the one form of ID stuck in the 19th century.)
