For those who want to live and work in Florida, it may be very important to have a license or another form of government ID. A driver’s license specifically can be important if the person has to commute to their job or even drive as part of their occupation. But these IDs are also used for many other things, such as proving someone’s identity during a traffic stop or showing that they are old enough to buy alcohol.
However, undocumented immigrants are going to face some challenges in Florida. Other states will sometimes issue IDs and driver’s licenses that can be used. But Florida has a new law stating that these types of identification are invalid within the state. The law also says that business owners in Florida need to use E-Verify – a federal system – to double-check the person’s eligibility. Additionally, if someone is using Medicaid, hospitals are required to ask if they are a citizen or not.
In other words, someone may have immigrated to a different state and gotten a license or an ID so that they could get a job. But if they then move to Florida without changing their status, the paperwork that they used elsewhere may suddenly be invalid and unable to be used.
What options do they have?
You can imagine how this would be quite a surprise to someone who assumed that they did have the proper paperwork. This law can create major challenges for undocumented immigrants who are attempting to support themselves, get jobs, use transportation options and much more. It may also make it much less likely that they would want to live in Florida to begin with, considering that their paperwork may be fine in other states.
At the end of the day, this new law has created a very complicated situation. It’s important for all immigrants to understand exactly what obligations they have and what steps to take.