Immigrants and advocacy groups say the recent New York State policy requiring a driver's Social Security number to match those at the Department of Motor Vehicles is scary and hurtful and will make New York unsafe by forcing many immigrants to drive without a license or insurance.
State Motor Vehicles Commissioner Raymond Martinez recently announced his department has verified the records and issued over a 100,000 letters to drivers cautioning them that their information did not match up and that this flaw, unless fixed in two weeks, would revoke their licenses. Martinez said by the end of the year, New York State would examine millions of driver's and non-driver’s licenses and learner's permits, in his words, to “update its database and make sure its documents are in proper
hands.” According to the DMV, an estimated 300,000 immigrants are likely to lose their licenses.
Since 1995, the state has mandated that Social Security identification must be used to obtain a
driver’s or non-driver’s license. This principle, however, is practiced only in nine states.
Advocacy groups say the policy is seriously flawed and will badly hurt immigrants who depend on their
driver’s license to make a living. They also said two weeks was not nearly adequate for the immigrant driver to fix the problem.
"It will criminalize immigrants," said Gouri Sadhwani, executive director of the New York Civic Participation Project, a group working closely with labor unions such as 32BJ and DC-37. “People who’ve been driving to make a living will now drive without a license or insurance and that will put them at serious risk,” she said.
Immigrants who have worked and driven in United States for years without any criminal incidents say they're being unfairly targeted.
S. Ali, an undocumented immigrant from Bangladesh who now works as a pizza delivery man, said he has lived in the United States since 1991 and never had any trouble with the law. “If I lose my license just because I don’t have a good Social [Security number], I'll have to start working at Wal Mart or something and I know my income will go down a lot. My family will suffer,” he said.
Ali is also worried that he will be a target for arrest and deportation.
“People should be very careful,” said Amy Sugimori, a lawyer at the National Employment Law Project. “Some people might negotiate with the system, but many others won’t. They should assess their individual situation before making their decision [to comply with the DMV request].”
New York Immigration Coalition recently reported that at least one immigrant was asked through the DMV letter to report his license-related discrepancies to the state’s DMV in Albany and was charged at a criminal court without any legal counseling.
Immigrants and advocacy groups are also asking why the state agency is doing it right now.
"I think it's partly they're trying to clean up their database and partly they're doing it to fight the war
on terrorism; I'm not sure," said Mark Lewis, New York Immigration Coalition's Albany representative. "But I know it's going to hurt thousands of hardworking people."
According to the conservative Coalition for a Secure Driver's License, 15 of the 19 terrorists in the
September 11 attacks were able to legally obtain a total of 63 driver's licenses.
But the Latino immigrants’ advocacy organization National Council of La Raza (NCLR) does not believe that requiring drivers’ license applicants to possess a Social Security number prevents terrorism. La Raza flips the Coalition’s argument to support their own pro-immigrant views.
“All of the 9/11 terrorists possessed Social Security numbers. It is not necessary to possess a U.S.
driver’s license to board an airplane," an NCLR statement says. "Sophisticated terrorists with
substantial financial resources are likely to have the ability to obtain drivers’ licenses and other
documents when they find them necessary.”
Insurance fraud does not seem to be a reason for the new DMV policy. A Queens-based Allstate insurance company agent did not find any sudden spike in drivers' insurance claims.
S. Hoque, an immigrant driver from Bangladesh and a father of two children, believes immigrant drivers
drive responsibly. "Especially immigrants with families are very careful [drivers]. They do not want
to get into insurance problems. New York City drivers' insurances are already too high."
“Social Security data may not match the DMV database information for many reasons other than fraudulent entry,” said Zahid Ali Syed, a South Asian organizer who worked on last fall’s Immigrant Workers’ Freedom Ride. “Name changes from marriages, divorces, expired student status, clerical errors all could cause discrepancies,” Syed said. He is concerned tens of thousands of immigrants will now seriously hurt because their livelihood will be "destroyed if they have to give up their driver's licenses."
Hoque expresses his own concerns. “I was a cab driver for years and now I’m running a small construction business. If my license is taken away, I’ll have to stop working. What else can I do?” he asked.
Indeed, fear is gripping the city’s immigrants, particularly those from South Asians and Latin
American communities, because their livelihoods depend on driving cars and cabs.
“Think about it,” Syed said. “This DMV policy is not just bad for these immigrants, it is bad for the
state’s and city’s economy too. Who will now drive New York’s taxis or livery cabs or limousines? And so many more people will now be jobless out on the street,” he said.
Carlos, a middle-aged undocumented immigrant from Honduras who has a mobile lunch station in Corona, Queens, shares Syed’s concerns. Carlos would not disclose his last name.
“I need my van to bring the food here every day,” Carlos said. “I have no choice but to drive. This is
my living. I don’t care if I have an ID or not,” he said.
“Social security numbers were never intended to be used for ID purposes in the first place,” Sadhwani
said. “That number is there to allow workers to have a benefit when they finish working. DMV is putting
immigrants through serious risks.”
But the DMV commissioner disagreed.
"We are not the immigration service and we have no intention of playing the role," Martinez said. "We
just want to make sure we have a database as updated as possible."
However, Martinez also said, “people who use fraudulent documents are subject to arrest, and if the
immigration or Social Security Administration documents were used, those agencies are notified.”
But, he added, “People whose records have discrepancies through name changes or misprints can
have their status corrected without penalty."
Hoque laments that non-citizen immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants in New York, do not have any political influence to make things happen in their favor.
“Unless our voices are heard in the mainstream, we will forever be second class or third class
[residents]. We are always taken advantage of,” he said.
Help might be on the way for Hoque. Last week, New York City Council Member Hiram Monserrate took the DMV to task and challenged the state to repeal the measure he considered “inhumane.”
“There will be a peoples’ movement against the DMV if it’s not repealed soon,” Monserrate said. He said New York’s economy will greatly suffer if immigrants are not allowed to have a drivers’ license or similar identification.
Jose Peralta, a New York State Assembly member, is also staging protests in Albany.
Immigrant and religious groups including New York Immigration Coalition, New Immigrant Community
Empowerment, Asian American and Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Funds, Project Hospitality and United Jewish Federation are planning a joint rally in front of DMV on April 13. Their demands might also include a general amnesty for immigrant drivers with good records.
Sadhwani said the DMV policy is part of a national anti-immigrant trend that began after the terrorist
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“After the special registrations, it’s now this,” Ali said gingerly referring to the now partly-suspended
program mandating Muslim immigrants to register with the immigration services. During the two-year-long program, thousands of immigrants were detained and deported.
“One way or the other, they’ll get us,” Ali said.
This article was written as part of the Ethnic Press Fellowship of the Independent Press Association-New York.
