For domestic violence victims, driver’s license matters
Attempting to force everyone in New Mexico to get a Real ID-compliant driver’s license always was a bad idea. Many groups of New Mexicans cannot easily provide all of the federally required documents to obtain a Real ID license or ID card, let alone afford to take multiple frustrating trips to the Motor Vehicle Division, as evidenced in local news reports.
If it is hard enough for them, it is nearly impossible for victims of domestic violence.
Often, victims of domestic violence do not get to pack a bag with their driver’s license, U.S. passport, birth certificate, Social Security card or other documents before fleeing in search of safety. And without those documents, getting a Real ID license or ID card would be a very real problem for them.
That is one of the many reasons why the state Legislature, with the broad support of domestic violence and sexual assault service providers, voted in 2016 to give New Mexicans an alternative to Real ID. Legislators allowed for a state-issued license and ID that do not have all the strict federal Real ID requirements. The driver’s authorization card was supposed to be that alternative non-Real ID license.
But since then, many victims have had to fight a losing battle for that alternative license, not because of the state law but because of the unnecessary requirements the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division decided to impose.
For victims of domestic violence, a driver’s license is a necessity, not a luxury. Victims need a license to get a restraining order against their abuser, to get a job, drive their kids to school, access city and state resources and much more.
Kudos to Somos Un Pueblo Unido, the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness and the other civil rights groups that have filed a lawsuit to force the MVD to follow the law and make the alternative license a real alternative as state legislators intended.