Maybe I am missing something.

But a recent Washington Post editorial, Posturing and Driver's Licenses (November 18, 2007), suggests driver's licenses should be granted to illegal immigrants and that creating, and requiring, a national ID for American citizens will solve our identity crisis. 

As they say on Grey's Anatomy, "Seriously?"

Before I go further, I am not surprised by the former suggestion, but you could have knocked me over with a feather with the later.  More on that later in this posting.

Ok.  Everyone, including the Post, is entitled to their own opinion.  But if you're an institution like the Post, and you seek to use your journalistic platform to further your agenda by influencing public opinion you need facts that link directly to your issue. 

If you read the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety's Unlicensed to Kill (the report is actually a pdf with no direct Web link) report (2003), you know the Post got that half right.  The Post accurately cited the study's driver safety statistics. 

There is just one problem.  The "20 percent of all fatal accidents involving at least one driver without a valid license,"  according to AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, is not illegal immigrants alone.  And this statistic is the primary basis for the Post's argument to grant driver's licenses to illegals.

In fact, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety's report never even specifically references the undocumented driver population. 

I spoke with the folks at AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and they reiterated just what I thought about those statistics.  They include drivers who, for a whole host of reasons may be "unlicensed." 

The "unlicensed" reasons may include, among others;  license suspended with points, license suspended due to a traffic offense, license suspended due to drunk driving, never applied for a license, couldn't obtain a license, etc.  So, the term "unlicensed" goes way beyond what the Post has reported. 

So, could it be the Post wants you to believe the aforementioned percentage is solely inclusive of the illegal immigrant driving population? I'll leave that for you to decide for yourself...and for the Post to answer if they choose.

Further to its cause, the Post cites Gov. Bill Richardson's low uninsured motorist rate in New Mexico and attributes the numbers to the governor's decision to license undocumented immigrants.

Well, it's true New Mexico has lowered the number of uninsured motorists on its roadways, but according to the Insurance Journal (Nov. 19, 2007) the Land of Enchantment's "statewide decline in uninsured motorists has happened mainly because of a 2001 law that established an up-to-date computer database of insurance coverage and allowed the state to better police its requirement for liability insurance on cars and trucks." 

Prior to this law and subsequent system development, a driver could provide proof of insurance when registering a vehicle but then immediately drop coverage and continue to drive.  Now the state gets daily, weekly and monthly updates of coverage from insurance companies.

The Post further, and perhaps most disturbingly, suggests you could "make driver's licenses valid only for driving, not as all purpose identity documents and by creating for other purposes a separate "national ID card with stringent biometric and other safeguards--much as European and other countries already have."

Is the Post kidding?  It doesn't appear so.

Driver's licenses were never created to be identity documents.  But that is what they have become.  Today, in addition to driving, you use them to board planes, to cash checks, to rent cars and for verification when using a credit card. Trying to turn back the clock on this phenomenon is most likely futile.  A dose of reality will tell you the horse is already out of the barn on that one.

Even if you take your state DMV out of the ID business via a federal law, the driver's license framework we enjoy today is still broken for driver's licensing purposes and is need of repair.

But more importantly, trying to convince the public and corporate America to put their trust in a separate federally-issued credential might not set well. 

Until next time, stay safe behind the wheel.

Jason D. King
VP, Public Relations & Info. Serv.
AAMVA
jking@aamva.org