Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Highway Safety Coalition?
The Highway Safety Coalition is a broad spectrum of law enforcement, healthcare, business, labor, faith and community leaders, is urging the General Assembly to have courage and put Highway Safety first by passing legislation in 2012 to ensure all Illinois drivers are licensed and insured
What are you looking to pass during the veto session?
The Highway Safety Coalition is calling on the Illinois’ General Assembly to require all Illinois motorists, including undocumented immigrants to be licensed, tested and insured.
What is Temporary Visitor Driver’s Licenses (TVDL)?
TVDL is an existing document that is now available to many foreign-born individuals living in Illinois. Since 2005, Illinois has issued TVDLs to individuals who do not have SSNs but who have lawful immigration status. Such individuals include foreign students, spouses and children of temporary workers, long-term visitors, and others who are not authorized to work under our immigration laws. Many of these individuals still need to drive on a regular basis to get to classes, shop, take their children to school, or attend to other family and personal business.
Obviously, this benefits only undocumented people?
This bill will be designed to assist every motorist in Illinois by making our highways safe since it will require that every Illinois motorist drive with a driver’s license and carry insurance.
If a person is stopped will law enforcement know that they are undocumented?
The document is available to both authorized and unauthorized people so an officer cannot make that assumption. Additionally, TVDLs would not brand people as undocumented, since unlike a driver’s certificate; the document is available more broadly to other individuals who cannot get regular licenses. The risk of profiling associated with certificates should not exist with TVDLs.
Are you trying to pass this now in response to the election?
The opportunity and appetite is there but we have been working on this issue along with the Highway Safety Coalition for many months now.
This is the 3rd time that you try to pass this, why do you think you can do it this time?
We think this is the perfect time to pass this sensible, reasonable bill to train, test, license and insure ALL Illinois drivers. We learned on November 6, 2012 that the nation must move beyond politics of scapegoating and reach sensible solutions that protect hardworking immigrant families and grow our economy. We believe this TVDL, as an already existing license that helps people prove who they say they are and is used for nothing else but to drive.
Where does Jesse White stand?
We are working with Secretary of State Jesse White, he is aware and as soon as we have a bill and language we will present it to him. It’s worth noting that Former Secretary of State and former Governor Jim Edgar is supportive of this bill
Where does the law enforcement stand?
We continue to work with Sheriff’s association to inform them of the bill. This bill will benefit law enforcement because it will ease the burden on courts and jails. Sheriff Association is meeting on 11/15 to talk about and hopefully support the bill like they did in 2007
Why aren’t they supporting this year?
We have been in conversations with law enforcement from the very beginning. They have a decision making process that we need to respect such as Sheriffs meeting on 11/15
Where does the Illinois Insurance Association and Independent Insurers stand?
Both associations have endorsed the need for mandatory license and insurance and are part of the Highway Safety Coalition.
Are you going to increase penalties for people who don’t get TVDL?
People are already subject to severe penalties for driving without a license and they also risk being arrested and put into deportation proceeds.
How are you preventing fraud?
We are working with the Secretary of State and law enforcement to make sure that our bill prevents fraud. We are looking at ways to verify the document presented and only accepting certain types of documents to get a TVDL.
The 9/11 terrorists were able to obtain driver’s license and use them to board the planes they used, could a terrorist use the TVDL in the same way?
You will be unable to board a airplane with a TVDL nor enter a federal building.
Why should we reward people who are breaking the law?
This is a way to ensure that everyone who is driving in Illinois be tested, get licensed and get insured so are roads in Illinois are safer.
TVDL says “Not for Identification purposes on the card,” how is this useful for healthcare providers and hospitals to use as an ID?
TVDL is a driving card, its purpose is to prove that the person behind the wheel has been trained, tested, licensed and insured. Of course when an ambulance arrives at the scene of an accident, they would be able to use TVDL to identify the person and the hospital can use it to identify who they are trying to rescue, and police will be able to identify who was involved and their driving record. TVDL is an existing, standardized state issued license that will help law enforcement and healthcare providers identify the person they are helping or working with.
