A new study finds that allowing undocumented Michigan residents to get a driver’s license could net the state $100-million over ten years.
Since 2008, undocumented Michigan residents haven’t been allowed to get a license.
Now, bills in the state legislature aim to change that.
Simon Marshall-Shah is with the Michigan League for Public Policy, which authored the study. He said an estimated 55-thousand state residents would become licensed in the first three years.
“Driving would become safer for all Michiganders. We have more people who would be on the road and be insured. Really importantly what it does as well is increase the chance that somebody will stop.”
Specifically, Marshall-Shah said drivers who are currently unlicensed will be more likely to stop after an accident.
He said beyond benefitting the state, licensing undocumented Michiganders will make their lives easier.
“We really would see more people being able to take their kids to school, take their kids to get vaccinated, go visit someone in the hospital, go to church. This is all things people with a license do currently. We might not think about that.”
Marshall-Shah estimates there are somewhere between 110 and 130-thousand undocumented Michigan residents.
The legislation would allow the state to identify documents necessary for the issuance of a driver’s license to an undocumented person.
Marshall-Shah said provisions in the legislation would protect social security information or a person's ineligibility for a social security number from being disclosed.