New driver’s card rules simplify system

Finally, more sensible rules for the issuing of New Mexico driver’s authorization cards. The new rules were announced last week, part of a settlement resulting from a class-action lawsuit filed by a coalition that represented immigrants, the homeless and other groups.

Under New Mexico’s 2016 law implementing federal standards for driver’s licenses, the state had two sorts of permits for individuals to drive.

One, the Real ID, met federal standards, meaning that applicants had to present a number of documents to prove identity. Only by doing so could people get the license that also could be used for federal ID purposes, including entering federal buildings, visiting military installations or boarding an airplane.

The second sort of license, a driver’s authorization card, never was meant to be as difficult to obtain. But New Mexico bureaucrats, the lawsuit alleged, were not following the state law.

That’s why a driver’s authorization card ended up being nearly as difficult to obtain as a Real ID Act-compliant license. Occasionally, even applicants with the proper documents had trouble getting an authorization card. Former Santa Fe Mayor David Coss could not obtain an authorization card despite presenting the correct documents; he ended up as one of the plaintiffs in the suit, filed in January. A settlement was reached in August, with the new rules carrying out the agreement released last week.

Now, applicants for the authorization card will not have to provide a Social Security card. They’ll need one document to prove identity and age and two proof-of-residency documents, except for homeless people, who can use just one document. Importantly, the Motor Vehicle Division will accept a wider range of documents to show residency; for people who don’t pay utility bills or receive property tax bills, that will make the process easier.

The context of the legislation and its implementation, of course, is the outgoing Gov. Susana Martinez’s insistence that people here without proper papers should not receive a driver’s license.

We have maintained for years that all of us are safer when every driver knows the rules of the road and has proved it by passing a driving test — that’s true for citizens, foreign residents here legally and people who crossed the border in the dead of night. By requiring a Social Security number for the driver’s authorization card, residents here illegally were being shut out. That was not the intent of the law.

The law — whether for a Real ID-compliant license and a driver’s authorization card — also was not meant to be as cumbersome in execution as it turned out.

The presence of a middle initial on a mortgage document that is missing from a birth certificate has meant delays in getting licenses.

In contrast, when applying for a passport, there is wiggle room for the bureaucrat on the other end to determine that Teresa J. Smith also is Terry Smith without forcing her to change her name legally.

Elderly people, especially, born with old-fashioned Spanish names that became Americanized in school or the military have had to go to court and change their names, an expensive process for people on fixed incomes. (Think of the many Margaritas who became Margarets or the Faustinos who spend life as Tinos, and this adds up.)

Married and divorced women have the extra burden of taking a marriage license or divorce papers along. And nowhere in the implementation has there been adequate training or publicity for the changes.

Come 2019, Gov.-elect Michelle Lujan Grisham’s team can find ways to streamline the law even further, whether by tweaking it in the Legislature or writing guidelines that work for people while meeting federal standards. These sensible rules are a step in the right direction.