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Utah's Driving Privilege Card presents dilemma for illegal aliens and employers

As of January 1, 2010, Utah’s Driving Privilege Card (DPC) will only be issued to individuals who are not able to prove legal presence in the United States. This change makes the DPC a clear and unambiguous illegal alien identification card.

According to Michael Sanchez of the Utah Coalition on Illegal Immigration, “This may be the most important piece of illegal immigration legislation passed by the Utah state legislature to date. It makes it impossible for ranchers, dairy farmers, construction companies, janitorial services, and others who require employees to have drivers licenses to pretend that they don’t know that they are hiring illegal aliens. In fact, by they end of 2010 when all existing Driving Privilege Cards are replaced, any employer who is aware that an employee has a Driving Privilege Card will be knowingly hiring an illegal alien.”

The old DPCs were issued to both illegal aliens and to people legally in the United States on temporary visas. Since DPCs expire annually, they will all have to be replaced in 2010.

As their current DPCs expire in 2010, foreign nationals legally in the United States will exchange their DPCs for time limited, regular Utah drivers licenses. Illegal aliens will receive the new DPCs which are only issued to individuals who’s driving “privilege is obtained without providing evidence of lawful presence in the United States.”

If individuals elect to obtain and use the new DPC, they will voluntarily identify themselves as being unlawfully in the United States to people they routinely come into contact with including employers, law enforcement officials, government authorities, public and higher education administrators and medical providers.

If individuals unlawfully in the United States decide not get a DPC in order to avoid divulging their unlawful status, they will no longer be able to drive legally in Utah. They will, therefore, have to forego driving and use public transit in order to obey Utah traffic laws.

If illegal aliens refuse to get the DPC and still insist on driving, they will have made a conscious decision to violate Utah’s traffic laws and will be subject to arrest and deportation.

In addition to the impact that the new DPC has on illegal aliens, it also has far reaching implications for employers and others who come into contact with illegal aliens.

Perhaps most importantly, Utah employers who know that an applicant for a job has a DPC issued after December 31, 2009 will know that they are dealing with someone who cannot prove legal presence in the United States.

If employers accept documents showing legal status from individuals with a DPC, they will be knowingly hiring an unauthorized worker and will almost certainly be accepting false documents.  Both of these are serious violations of law.

Likewise, if an employer knows that a current employee has renewed his DPC in 2010, he will know for certain that the person cannot prove legal status and he will be knowingly employing an individual who is not authorized to work in the U.S. Again, this is a violation of federal law that exposes the employer to serious sanctions.

In addition, when employers are paying wages to individuals who have both a Social Security number and a DPC issued from January 1, 2010 onward, they will know that they are dealing with illegal aliens who may be committing document fraud and very possibly identity theft under Utah law because the new DPCs are not issued to people who are lawfully in the United States.

If an employer knows that a person has a new DPC and still attests to the individual’s eligibility to legally work in the United States by signing the person’s I-9 form, then the employer will be committing perjury which is a felony and will be subject to prosecution by federal authorities.

Employers who require illegal aliens to drive employer owned farm, construction or other vehicles on public roads will be especially impacted.

When employers or their agents verify a new hire’s or current employee’s drivers license and are presented with a DPC issued after December 31, 2009, they will either have to refuse to hire the individual or terminate the current worker’s employment, otherwise they will be knowingly employing an illegal alien.

Police officers who stop an individual with a new DPC for a traffic violation or other infraction of the law will immediately know that they are dealing with a person who has voluntarily elected to disclose the she is unable to provide proof of legal presence in the United States.

Individuals with the new DPC who are booked into jail will voluntarily identify themselves to jail personnel when they turn in their DPCs during in-processing or when a records check shows that they have a DPC issued in 2010. Jail staff can then notify federal authorities in order to begin deportation procedures.

Individuals applying for government benefits will clearly identify their status when presenting a new DPC. They will also identify their legal status when they show their DPC to medical providers, to store clerks and to anyone else.

Groups that focus on controlling illegal immigration have already indicated that they will be closely monitoring the implementation of the new DPCs to ensure that employers are not knowingly hiring illegal aliens.
 

 

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By

Salt Lake City Immigration Examiner

Ronald Mortensen, Ph.D., is a retired United States Foreign Service Officer (diplomat) with substantial experience in immigration matters. He is a...

Comments

  • Estoban 2 years ago
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    Sweet!!

  • Randy 2 years ago
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    Fine the employers $10.000 each time they hire an illegal also.. I am sick of them stealing my work in construction.

  • Jane 2 years ago
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    Would be Double Sweet if we actually enforced our laws.

  • Mike 2 years ago
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    Brilliant, please let our useless politicians take notice and follow suit.

  • Delaware Bob 2 years ago
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    I got it! I got it! Let the illegal aliens go back to their own Country where they can get a license to drive. You go, Utha! STOP pandering to illegal aliens! I'll be glad if we get a State Illegal Immigration Law here in Delaware. We are going to try! We have had it with them!

  • Roxanna 2 years ago
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    Hey we need that here in North Carolina ! I live in a city that is considerd a SANCTUARY CITY ~ Durham ! you got em crawling all over the place here adn they know it

  • Gail 2 years ago
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    They still get in-state tuition in Utah.
    I feel so bad for Randy & other men who
    have their jobs stolen by illegals.I see
    rampant hiring of illegals here in Seattle
    in construction, warehouse, restaurant, &
    landscaping jobs.
    I couldn't get a room attendant job
    here in Seattle because they only want
    to hire Hispanics. The Marriott is the
    worst: they changed the Hispanics' names
    on the work schedule posted on the wall
    to American names to escape getting caught
    having hired illegals.

  • D 2 years ago
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    This proves there is more than one way to "skin a cat". I hope all of the bleeding heart libs and the ACLU see this and understand that true Americans are starting to fight back. Congrats to Utah!!

  • RoBoTech 2 years ago
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    Jane nailed it.
    This "law" will never catch even ONE Illegal. It wasn't meant to. This article is trash.
    The whole point was giving Illegals DLs and IDs. It actually makes it EASIER for THEM to get around as NOW police and others know NOT to touch them!
    Wanna bet on it?
    Watch and see how long it takes to find out an Illegal has been stopped 3-4 times with a DPC and NOT arrested, before he/she finally plows into YOUR moms and pops, sisters and bro's, BFF's and others. THEN come back here and say how wonderful it is. There is NO Illegal Immigration enforcement in UTAH, or any other State.

  • Lenore 2 years ago
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    WAY TO GO UTAH!!!!! AND ZAP IT TO THE EMPLOYERS THAT HIRE
    THEM,KNOWINGLY HIDING IT (e.g. MArriott), AND DELIBERATELY KEEPING THE PAY SCALE LOW.
    MAKE IT WORK!!!

  • rodeoma 2 years ago
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    Here we go AGAIN. The Illegals are getting something they DON'T deserve! What the heck? WHY are we always pandering to people who BREAK THE LAW? Yes, I agree employers should be slapped silly for hiring but it's our government that needs to stop catering to the illegals as well and keep "giving away the farm." We need to STOP all the freebies that are offered to the illegals, and crack down on running then out of our country. And don't give me the old whaawhaa about "who would wash your car, clean your house, work in your restaurants?" Guess what...who did that before we had the flood of immigrants from Mexico? The Americans. Our unemployed, I do believe would step ups to fill these jobs, especially if they could work in an environment where "English" was the main language spoken like it should be! I am from California and we have such a problem here that Utah probably doesn't even have a 1/10 of the issue we do! Wake up!!!

  • Aaron 2 years ago
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    Is this going to be happening other states around Utah like Idaho or Nevada even?If more state governments do this more and more tax paying citizens aren't going to like paying even more money for illegals!! This is one way to get the tax paying even more madder and angrier at the government for not getting rid of the problem but helping it instead!!

  • Phillip 1 year ago
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    Doesn't this mean that the utah can now legally collect more fees from thos imigrants, much like out of state tuition. If you are granted a privilage you weren't ment to receive you should work even harder. If immigrants want to stay they should be allowed but, not pampered...they should work twice as hard and pay twice as much so that citizens do not have to pick up their slack. We need social Darwinism to allow only the strong to stay all the others should leave weather they're citizens or not. If you're holding this country from moving forward you should leave i have no problem with an immigrant that is willing to work twice as hard...i would prefer that better than a citizen that doesn't work at all.

  • niko 1 year ago
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    rodeoma, only half of the illegals are from Mexico, and like it or not there will always be illegal aliens, because it's a huge country, you can't control everything.

  • erik 1 year ago
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    you know its good to give dpc cards to illegals because you wouldent want a person that doesent know how to drive out on the roads so great job with the dpc cards

  • steve 1 year ago
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    you people are racist how do you know there steeling your work and you may think that all illegals are brown but even some asians are illegal and you people are just racist and ignorant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Sandrea 1 year ago
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    Why are we not deporting these people as soon as we find out that they are illegal? Instead we give them a DPC and turn them loose to drive? I must be missing something!!!

  • Dave 8 months ago
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    You guys are a bunch of idiots. I once hired an anglo company to do my landscape and it was the worst job I'd ever saw my buddy recommended another landscape co. Owned by a latino who finish quicker and did a way better job. Not even a comparison. This are not taking our jobs they take the jobs no one wants and just helps the socilists and republicans get richer paying ridiculously underpaid wages for labor

  • Anonymous 4 months ago
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    Is it true that janitorial services have very low pay?

  • Anonymous 2 months ago
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    Mexican's do not take jobs from Americans, Americans are just to lazy to get of their ass and actully work all they want is easy jobs and they leave all the low paying jobs to immigrants, thise country you are living in is made of immigrants who work hard and probably love this country more then Americans. and if you feel they took your job am sure that they probably did the job better then you. Mexicans pay taxes they just cant get the benefits. Mexican's work in Agricutural producing foods that we eat daily. have you ever seen a an american working out in the fields? ya i didnt think so instead Americans set in ther ass watching T.V. and enjoy eating the food that Mexicans are producing. if it wasnt for Mexicans we wouldnt have all the food that we do now. we benefit more from them then they do from us. Because all america wants to do is deport them. while they actully help the USA.

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