Editorial: Driver’s license standards good balance

While the illegal immigration issue simmers in Washington state, it could boil over if officials don’t react to reasonable complaints. Several attempts to place sweeping anti-immigration initiatives on the ballot have thankfully failed for lack of signatures. These efforts go too far, because they seek to enlist private employers and state government in the enforcement of federal laws.

However, the state up until recently has resisted the perfectly legitimate task of ensuring that applicants for driver’s licenses are state residents. Before recent changes by the Department of Licensing, only New Mexico and Washington failed to require proof of citizenship, or legal residency. Because of this leniency, applicants who had been rejected in other states would apply for licenses in Washington.

Last July, North Carolina began requesting a valid Social Security number, and by September 752 people from that state had applied for licenses in Washington. Of those applicants, 66 percent requested a form declaring they had never been issued a Social Security number.

So last November, DOL began asking those who used the declaration form to show proof of residency by producing a utility bill or rental receipt.

As a result, fewer out-of-state people who don’t provide a Social Security number are seeking driver’s licenses in Washington state. According to DOL data released Friday, 8 percent of out-of-state applicants did not provide a Social Security number in the first half of the year. That’s down from 16 percent in 2010.

While the state cannot ensure that license holders are legally in the country, they can make sure they live in the state. This change should end the state’s status as a magnet for illegal immigrants who could not get a driver’s license elsewhere.

This crackdown is legitimate, because holders of driver’s licenses can use them as identification to gain access to government assistance they wouldn’t otherwise qualify for because of their immigration status.

The key now is for DOL to stick to its standards. It has stiffened them before but backed off over complaints from customers and workers who bemoaned the increased verification burden. We’ve all been inconvenienced since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but the heightened scrutiny is warranted.

We do not want our state to be an enabler of illegal immigration, but we also don’t want it taking over enforcement that properly belongs to the federal government.

With the new driver’s license standards, the state has struck the right balance and, perhaps, turned down the temperature on a heated controversy.