(AP) Governor Matt Blunt says he will support legislation barring the state from issuing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
Blunt says the state already has safeguards intended to prevent illegal immigrants from getting driver’s licenses. But he says Missouri lacks a specific law against it.
The governor says his proposal will include criminal penalties for people who help illegal immigrants get driver’s licenses. But the governor did not detail those proposed penalties in a news release.
Blunt is announcing the proposal at series of news conferences in Springfield, Kansas City, Cape Girardeau and St. Louis.
The Department of Revenue through scores of contractor-run offices around the state issues driver’s licenses in Missouri.
People who are not U.S. citizens currently can get Missouri driver’s licenses by showing a federal form validating their lawful presence. Their status also is checked through a federal database, said department spokesman David Griffith.
Under a change made in 2005, those temporary licenses last only until the expiration of that person’s approval to be in the United States, Griffith said. Previously, non-citizens could receive Missouri driver’s licenses with standard expiration dates, meaning their licenses could have remained valid after their approval to be here had ended, he said.