Posted on November 16, 2005

Md. Immigrants Sue Over License Process

N.C. Aizenman, Washington Post, Nov. 16

Thirteen foreign-born residents of Maryland filed a lawsuit yesterday alleging that the state’s Motor Vehicle Administration routinely and improperly denies driver’s licenses to immigrants.

Unlike laws in Virginia and several other states, Maryland’s code does not prohibit illegal immigrants from obtaining a license. Attempts by several legislators to pass such a prohibition have repeatedly failed — with many Maryland lawmakers arguing that most illegal immigrants are otherwise law-abiding and that the roads are safer if they are required to pass a driving test.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit said they believe the MVA’s informal procedures are designed to bar illegal immigrants, excluding many legal immigrants in the process as well.

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The suit, filed in Baltimore Circuit Court and announced to the media at a rally in front of the MVA’s headquarters in Glen Burnie, takes particular issue with a requirement that foreign-born applicants make an appointment with a specially trained document examiner at one of eight offices across the state.

U.S.-born applicants can walk into any of the MVA’s 18 offices and apply for a license without an appointment.

Buel Young, a spokesman for the MVA, said the agency adopted the system in September 2003 because of the challenges involved in verifying the authenticity of the foreign documents, such as passports and birth certificates issued by foreign governments.

“You can imagine that we get documents from all over the world,” he said. “We felt that instead of having someone occupy a counter for potentially hours as opposed to the minutes necessary to process a run-of-the-mill application, this would be a better way.”

Eliza Leighton, another CASA attorney, said a foreign-born applicant often has to wait weeks or months for an appointment that may be hours from his or her home.

“That’s unequal treatment,” she said. “That’s not the due process required under the Maryland constitution.”

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