Non-citizen driver’s will be able to get a regular Illinois driver’s license under a new state law signed by Governor JB Pritzker. Currently, undocumented immigrants can get a temporary visitor driver’s license. It has TVLD stamped at the top and cannot be used as a form of identification. The law, sponsored by Senator Ram Villivalam of Chicago, grants individuals a standard driver’s license.
“It has a real-world, real-life impact for people that are not able to use their identification to get a prescription at a pharmacy or at a restaurant or store. It also has a more philosophical real-life impact as well, which is ending the stigma, the stigma of having a different kind of ID, just simply because of who you are.”
More than 300-thousand immigrants in Illinois have a TVDL. The new law takes effect in January.
***Courtesy of the Illinois Department of Central Management Services***