Recent social media posts and news reports claim President Joe Biden’s administration will provide photo ID cards to undocumented immigrants.
One of the posts implied these ID cards would allow them to vote in federal elections.
Several VERIFY readers have also emailed us in recent weeks wondering if undocumented immigrants receive ID cards or driver’s licenses, and whether they can vote in U.S. elections as a result.
THE QUESTION
Does having an ID or driver’s license allow undocumented immigrants to vote in federal elections?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
No, IDs or driver’s licenses do not allow undocumented immigrants to vote in federal elections.
WHAT WE FOUND
Federal law does not allow noncitizens to vote in federal elections, regardless of whether they have an ID or driver’s license.
In 1996, Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. That law made it a crime for noncitizens to vote in federal elections for president, vice president and members of Congress.
USA.gov, the federal government’s official web portal, also says noncitizens cannot vote in federal, state and most local elections.
Many states have laws requiring people to show some form of identification at the polls. But having an ID or driver’s license doesn’t allow a person to vote in federal elections if they are not a U.S. citizen.
The recent confusion online can be traced back to a proposed government ID card program for noncitizens.
A July 2022 report on the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill says the bill included $10 million in proposed funding for an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Secure Docket Card program. The program would “allow noncitizens access to immigration files and documents,” the report says.
It’s not clear where the program stands right now. ICE did not respond to VERIFY’s request for comment, but an agency spokesperson told Reuters in August 2022 that the ID card “will not be an official form of federal identification.” The card could be used to help noncitizens keep track of pending immigration cases.
As for driver’s licenses, 19 states and the District of Columbia allow undocumented immigrants to apply for them, according to the National Immigration Law Center and National Conference of State Legislatures.
States can choose who is allowed to get a driver’s license since there are no federal rules on issuing them.
But those driver’s licenses do not grant a person citizenship or the right to vote in federal elections, either. Some of the state laws even make it clear that the licenses alone cannot be used for voting, or that they are not valid or accepted for “official federal purposes.”
The process for undocumented immigrants to get a driver’s license varies by state, and can take months or even years. Undocumented immigrants generally need to provide a foreign birth certificate, foreign passport or consular card as well as evidence of current state residency, the NCSL says.
So, we can VERIFY that having an ID or driver’s license does not allow undocumented immigrants to vote in federal elections.
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