November 2, 2007 5:12PM # What You Need to Know About Driver Licensing and Illegal Aliens By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) --- SHARE After [700 words of *Sturm und Drang*](http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200711/POL20071102a.html) about lawsuits and partisan machinations over whether illegal aliens should be able to get drivers’ licenses, CNSNews​.com reporter Fred Lucas quoted me briefly: > “Identification systems aren’t a good security tool,” Harper told Cybercast News Service. “Driver licensing isn’t a good tool for immigration control. It will just result in illegal immigrants driving without a license.” That sums it up nicely. Just thought I’d share it. (The story says that unlicensed driving dropped by a third when New Mexico de-linked driver licensing and immigration status. Actually, unlicensed driving dropped by two thirds, from 33% to 11%, lower than the national average.) ##### Related Tags [Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Technology and Privacy](https://www.cato.org/technology-privacy), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).