Immigrants in Illinois without a visa will be eligible to apply for temporary driver’s licenses next month.

Governor Pat Quinn signed the Public Act in January this year and the law will go into effect this November.

Illinois is not the first state to pass this law, but the Illinois Secretary of State’s Executive Inspector General Nathan Maddox said Illinois will be the first large state, the first centrally located state and the first state at the crossroads of the nation’s transportation system to issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.

This driver’s license is not the first one of its kind in Illinois, but this new type broadens who is eligible for the temporary visitor’s driver’s license, which allows those without a visa to obtain one.

The term on the application is non-visa status immigrant, which was a compromise after many complained about the term “undocumented immigrant.”

Some commenters wanted the term deleted. They also wanted there to be no difference in applying for a temporary license with or without a visa. But, Maddox said removing the differences could not happen because applying for a temporary visitor’s driver’s license is different than how a person applies for a standard driver’s license.

There are special eligibility requirements for the new applicants, so it needs to be treated differently in the application process, he said. There has also been a suggestion to refer to the undocumented immigrants as A-5 applicants, from a reference in the new section of the Vehicle Code, but that idea was rejected because most people do not have knowledge of the reference.

Maddox said there were general observations and complaints from the public saying the Secretary of State treats applicants for the new driver’s license differently. He said the Secretary of State recognizes the differences, but those differences will continue after the new rulemaking.

One reason for the differences is because the requirements for the undocumented immigrants to get a driver’s license are different than all other driver’s licenses. Maddox said those include applicants’ proof they have lived in Illinois for one year and provide a valid, unexpired passport or consular ID card from their native country.

If the undocumented person says he or she has lived in Illinois for the last 12 months, that person must show proof of residency. The original proposal said if a person did not own their residence, they would need to list their landlords name and number. This suggestion was thrown out because commenters feared that would create too much power for a landlord to have over its tenants, which could cause abuse of the tenants. Also, some landlords may be unaware of a person living on their residence if that person lives with family or friends, or the landlord may not know the tenant is an undocumented immigrant.

Also, applicants do not have any verified federal identification information. Before the law becomes active, all drivers’ license holders have to either have federally issued social security card number or federally issued immigration documentation. He said the differences in the procedures for the undocumented immigrant driver’s license are to make up for the lack of federal identification.

Cindy Galway Buys, a Professor of Law at SIU and the director of International Law Programs, said the temporary licenses say you need to get insurance.

“I think a lot of undocumented immigrants were driving already,” Buys said.

She said the law is recognition of the reality that these people are here and they are already driving on our roads, and without having a license, they cannot get insurance.

Buys said giving the undocumented immigrants a driver’s license is a good thing because it helps protect American citizens, because if they are in an accident together, prior to this law, the undocumented immigrant would not have insurance to cover the cost of an accident.

Maddox said because of the state’s size and location, the program will be targeted significantly by organized criminal activities that are designed to fraudulently get the temporary visitor’s driver’s licenses for those who do not live in Illinois.

“Because of concerns about possible criminal activity involving individuals fraudulently obtaining identification documents, the Secretary of State’s Inspector General’s office has been actively involved in the design and implementation of this program,” Maddox said in an email.

Maddox said the best way they can look for fraud is the most basic way: they check for repeated passport numbers, license plate numbers, addresses, and vehicles that are used to take the road test.

The Secretary of State does not know for sure how many undocumented immigrants live in Illinois, but they are estimating between 250,000 and 500,000, possibly more. Of those immigrants, they do not know how many are of driving age or how many will apply for this license. However, they estimate around 100,000 will apply for the license.

Maddox said even if only one-tenth of the estimated number show up to apply for their license on the first day, November 28, the crowd will be unmanageable.

He said not only will they wait in lines that stretch for blocks, many of them will not get waited on, and regular customers will also have to wait in this line.

To help with the expected crowd, the Secretary of State has identified 25 facilities that have the physical layout to accommodate extra counters, testing areas, et cetera. They have also identified 10 more facilities they can use if it is necessary.

The Secretary of State will decide how many applicants these additional facilities can handle, and they will make online and call-in appointments for those facilities. It is estimated that the facilities can accommodate 100,000 applicants per year. Maddox said people may want everyone to have their license within six months, but that would mean when it is time for renewal, they would have a six month block very busy again. The renewal process will happen every three years with these licenses, and the Secretary of State has not decided if they will issue renewal notifications.

Carbondale is listed on the Secretary of State’s website as a location where undocumented immigrants can apply for their temporary visitor’s driver’s license.

Another change from the original documents was that undocumented immigrants were supposed to show proof they could not get a social security number by talking to the Social Security Administration. This requirement was thrown out, because it would require applicants to contact a federal government agency and identify themselves as undocumented immigrants.

The Secretary of State had to consider exemptions from photos for those that it violates their religious beliefs. The law did not originally have an exemption, but Maddox said since other licenses allow exemptions, this new type will as well.

However, this exemption interferes with one of the ways the Secretary of State plans to fight fraud, their face recognition system. The face recognition system compares millions of pictures in the states database, which compares things such as the length from pupil to pupil, the shape of ears, and much more. Maddox said thousands of cases of fraud are found each year. She said sometimes people try to steal someone’s identity, or if they have a bad driving record, they try to go under a new name with a clean driving record. Maddox said there are a lot of matches that are normal because of people changing their names.

Some commenters wanted the Secretary of State to post notices of this face recognition system, but Maddox said they declined because they do not want to advertise how they stop fraud.

Buys said it could help with crime because many undocumented immigrants do not want to talk to police if they do not have a license or insurance.

She said although immigration is dealt with federally, and the state government deals with the licenses, she believes many immigrants may still feel a threat.

“I wonder how many of them will feel confident enough and feel like the benefits of having the driver’s license outweigh the risk of being identified by the government in terms of their unlawful presence,” Buys said.