Licensing Terror and Illegality: Driver’s License Discourse—1903 to REAL ID

• In Event: Discursive Institutionalist Approaches to APD: Ideas, Identities, Institutions

Abstract

The first driver’s licenses in the United States were issued in 1903 by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but it was not until 1959 that every state in the union issued licenses to state drivers and 1966 when the first major federal legislation regulating driving, the Highway Safety Act, was enacted. During the 20th century, discourse around driver’s licenses centered about concerns over the “deadly ‘drink driver,’’ and the moral panic associated with the consumption of alcohol. In the early 21st century, the events of 9/11 radically shifted the discourse about driver’s licenses, which reframed the issue of licensing drivers as a matter of national security following allegations that the 9/11 hijackers were enabled by a system that allowed them to obtain multiple driver’s licenses in various states. The ‘drinking-driver’ receded in national deba tes of road safety and driver licensing, replaced by the existential threat of Islam, immigrants, and terrorists with “licenses to kill.” More recently, state campaigns to issue licenses to undocumented drivers have featured prominently in national debates over immigration, security, and the rule of law.

This paper adopts a discursive institutionalist (DI) approach to trace and analyze the narrative trajectory of drivers’ license policymaking discourse at the federal level from 1903 to the present as a window into the dynamics of American federalism, politics, and power. This analysis looks to Congressional records, media coverage, and documents produced by organizations engaged in driver’s license advocacy. In addition to examining the discourse itself, this analysis will also attend to the constellation of institutional actors generating driver’s license discourse ranging from political elites such as Members of Congress as well to undocumented workers advocating to eliminate immigration status restrictions to driver’s licenses. This DI approach seeks to identify continuities as well as instances of change in institutional landscapes. For example, the 1980s witnessed the rapid ascendancy of victim advocacy groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) and Remove Intoxicated Drivers (RID), which became pivotal figures in efforts to regulate the licensing of drivers who operated vehicles while intoxicated.

The events of 9/11 constituted a critical juncture, spurring a new cadre of organizations such as 9/11 Families for a Secure America, which spoke out in the name of the families of 9/11 victims to advocate against immigrant access to driver’s licenses. The post-9/11 driver license policymaking regime culminated in the passage of the REAL ID Act in 2005, followed by over fifteen years of delays in the implementation of its provisions to tighten state driver license standards that included immigration status requirements. More recently, as federal policymakers have honed in on efforts to extend driving privileges to undocumented drivers at the state level, such as the "Stop Greenlighting Driver Licenses for Illegal Immigrants Act," first introduced in 2020. These discursive shifts from the “drinking-driver” to REAL ID to the “Greenlighting illegality” shed light on how federal licensing policies serve as proxies for broader political struggles.

Author

• Jackie Vimo, New School for Social Research