Should illegal immigrants, without a valid drivers license, be allowed to drive a vehicle in America?

“Until a few years ago, Egypt was known for having the easiest driving test in the world. In order to pass, all a person had to do was drive six meters forward and then reverse six meters. However, the test has recently been updated to make it more difficult.”

If you see someone driving a car in America with an Egyptian driver’s license with more than 5 years of age, I would avoid him/her as a citizen driver.

I guess if the license from their home country is valid, then it’s a form of reciprocity. As far as I know I can drive in most other countries on my valid Connecticut driver’s license.

Your state and county administrators have to determine what are the likely costs vs. benefits of jailing “illegal” immigrants for commission of minor traffic infractions, because they probably won’t receive the revenue from the fines if you let them go. My guess is they would pay an arm and a leg to not only jail the offenders, but then have to provide them with legal representation in court, too. Against, what? A $50 or $100 speeding ticket? Not worth it.

And as long as you aren’t charged with enforcing immigration laws—and I don’t see why you should be—your administrators will only want to know if the license was valid, and they presented no other obvious risk factors, and continue to let them go.

Edit: I see that your question states “invalid” license. In that case maybe the political administration needs to wake up and enforce laws against “invalid” and “no license” equally for citizens and non-citizens alike.

As long as they have a valid license from their home country, they are not committing a crime by driving in the US. I know there is an effort underway in many areas to arrest illegal immigrants when police officers happen upon them in any manner, even if they are not committing a primary crime at the time.

No.
Legal immigrants should be allowed to if they can understand the rules of the road, and have a drivers license from their home country, The reciprocity that @CyanoticWasp was talking about.
Illegal immigrants should be deported.

No

here in europe its really weird where you can drive under what licenses. when someone comes here to spain from the UK they can drive on a UK license, but only for a while. they then need to get it changed over to a spanish one. but there is no test, its just paperwork that needs to be done.

its not something that really bothers me that much, they are probably quite safe drivers. i would just like to see a global driving license where everyone is held to the same standard, if anything just for convenience.

i have traveled a lot in car around europe, and its really annoying not knowing for sure where you can and cant drive until its too late and you are pulled over.

im not sure if anything is or even has been done about it yet.

as for if its unfair or not, well, these americans you send to jail dont have any license at all. i would be interested to know what would happen to an american on an american road with a mexican license before i decide if its unfair or not.

No one should be allowed to drive without a valid license.

@poisonedantidote
validity differs from country to country because different countries have different traffic regulations, different signs and different difficulties in driving tests. You might have a perfect knowledge of all the traffic rules in your home country, but then you might just as well have not the slightest idea about the rules of another country, so logically, your drivers license should not be valid in that other country.

I am Swedish and is allowed to drive in most countries. Americans are allowed to drive in Sweden as well, no matter what the status of residence permit. I think those are two very different issues, as long as they have a valid driving license issued.

Wasp, i understand your answer. in the beginning, i think liability was the underlying cause for arresting illegal immigrants without a valid drivers license from my state. then, they changed the law to allow out of country drivers to drive as long as they had a valid drivers license from their country. my point was comparing legal American drivers with illegal immigrants and one having a valid dl and the other not and their mandatory arrest.was the inability to not speak English and read and understand speed limit and other traffic signs a part of this law of liability? who knows.

Is your problem with these drivers that their license is from another country or that they’re illegal immigrants?

nikipedia…....the confusion of the law is what makes most officers upset. one day, its enforcement, the next day its not enforcement. i have stopped so many illegal immigrants that have fake identification and forged drivers license. i blame my state for this problem. they allowed any and all illegal immigrants to apply for drivers license. since they were illegally in the United States, they would use their friends legal papers and apply for a drivers license. this really confused law enforcement because in reality, we did not know the true identity of a driver, stopped for a traffic violation. can you possibly imagine the havoc this created? i stopped two traffic violators that had the same drivers license information with the only difference being their photograph. my state really made a mistake in this situation.

@john65pennington I was of the impression that you were talking about valid foreign licenses. Forged american ones or otherwise is a different story.

Thats right. our state allowed this to happen and officers just gave up. we did not know who we were stopping, their real name or if they had outstanding warrants. this was a classic case of identity theft and sancuted by my state as legal.

@augustlan Are you in Maricopa county? I heard “Sheriff Joe” was rounding up lots of folks.

It seems ridiculous on the surface, but it’d be too hard to tell who is an illegal immigrant and who is just visiting the country to enforce anything else. For example, an academic on sabbatical for a semester in the US – they need to be able to drive, but because they aren’t a citizen here, they can’t apply for a US drivers license. In a smaller nation with better public transit, a law requiring a valid license from that nation might be enforceable, but not here.

For me, the question comes down to a safety issue. Yes, the person should have a valid drivers license from this or another country and be in the U.S. legally, but beyond that, but if he/she can’t read traffic signs or is used to driving on the left side of the road is accustomed to driving at much higher speeds or likes to talk on a cell phone while driving, his/her driving affects the safety of others and should not be allowed to drive. Driving is a privilege, not a right, by the way, and all traffic laws must be understood and followed. Yikes! I sound like a school principal.

It could go both ways. For now I don’t care about what’s fair. If I’m driving on the road with these people i’d rather it be safe, than fair. I rather someone be a skillful driver than someone have an american license and be a horrible driver and a danger to others on the road. At the same time it is also wrong because everyone around the area had to go through a lot to earn their privilege to drive there, so these people have to as well, because then it’s also not fair. But also why are you targeting only illegal immigrant? Even in the US every state has different rules, so even if your not an illegal immigrant, lets say you move to California, you need to get a California license within 10 days of residence! You wouldn’t be able to drive with your out of state license.

@john65pennington

Would you ban Canadian drivers, regardless of their current residence from driving on US roads? Many Canadians own property in the USA and spend months at a time in the USA.

Is every Mexican driving with a Mexican driver’s licence an illegal immigrant?
Should all Mexicans, regardless of residence, be banned from driving on US roads?

I agree that people in the USA illegally should not be free to violate other US laws.

Many countries require you get a permit to drive in there country, but not enough do that to make a difference. If we did that we would know how many immigrants are driving in the US- and if they plan to stay longer than a month then they can renew only one time and then they have to get a license in America!

Immigrants know what the signs of mean. All the signs are similar to Mexico and most of Latin America. If they have a license it’s because they passed a test and knew the rules. Just because someone comes from another country does not mean they don’t know the rules for driving.

The problem is that any person in the state of indiana without a valid driver license in this country or any other is held to a class c felony misdeminor for driving without a valid driver liscense. so if you are in this country illegally and do not have a valid driver license or legal address there is no way to hold you accountable. So why get a driver license. FAIR what is fair anymore? So indiana; needs new ways to govern our highways to make them safe!