New reforms went into effect July 1 in Florida, aimed to combat illegal immigration and curb the consequences of bad immigration policy. One of those reforms included cracking down on invalid driver’s licenses, and the Sunshine State released its first list following the law going into effect.
DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1718 in May, describing it at the time as some of the strongest legislation against illegal immigration in the nation.
Miami Sector agents apprehended a large group of migrants who landed Tavernier, Florida. (U.S. Border Patrol/Miami Sector)
In addition to enhancing human smuggling penalties and strengthening E-Verify, the measure also cracks down on out-of-state licenses issued to illegal aliens. Under this law, Florida will no longer recognize them. As a result, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles released a list of out-of-state licenses no longer valid under the new law.
The most recent list includes licenses from Connecticut which indicate “Not For Federal Identification,” and Delaware licenses which indicate “Driving Privilege Only” and “Not Valid for Identification.”
In scenes reminiscent of El Paso and Eagle Pass, Texas, Border Patrol agents in Florida prepare to process large groups of migrants. (Pedro Portal/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Further Hawaiian licenses with the following identification will not be recognized as valid:
- “Limited Purpose Driver’s License”
- “Limited Purpose Instruction Permit”
- “Limited Purpose Provisional Driver’s License”
- “Not Valid for use for official Federal purposes”
Two other state licenses were included and are as follows:
Vermont:
- “Not for REAL ID Purposes Driver’s Privilege Card”
- “Not for REAL ID Purposes Junior Driver’s Privilege Card”
- “Not for REAL ID Purposes Learner’s Privilege Card”
Rhode Island:
- “Not for Federal Identification”
- “Driver Privilege Card”
- “Driver Privilege Permit”
Migrants from Cuba line up to board a bus to be driven to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection station as they are processed on January 05, 2023 in Marathon, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“A lot of people in across the country who want open borders, they want driver’s licenses and you have it in — I think in California and a number of these other states. We’ve never done that,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a May press conference, describing the law.
“But what happens is you have some of these local governments that are actually working with private groups to generate ID cards to be able to be used, as if that makes you legal to be here. So we’re not going to recognize that,” he added. “We’re also not going to recognize a driver’s license from California [if] it was issued to somebody here illegally or these other states.”
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Meanwhile, earlier this year, Democrats in Minnesota advanced a plan which would give driver’s licenses to an estimated 77,000 illegal aliens. Gov. Tim Walz signed the “driver’s licenses for all” legislation in March.