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Florida bans driver's licenses of immigrants living in US illegally
(www.reuters.com)
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this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2023
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Most concerning to me, outside the obvious, is that anyone from these states driving in Florida can now be stopped for any reason at all and ran through the for profit legal system. Escalating from "driving without proper ID" to some misdemeanor charges or more is pretty easy to do.
How would this work? They would still need a reason to stop and valid charges. Only IDs issued to those without legal status are invalid in FL.
Step 1: Police officer sees a car with an out of state license plate.
Step 2: Officer comes up with a reason to stop the car. Maybe the driver was doing 2mph over the speed limit or didn't stop 100% properly (in the officer's opinion) at a stop sign. Note that this can be completely made up. The officer can claim that they were going 50 in a 30 speed zone even if they were going 29mph.
Step 3: The officer asks for the driver's ID. The driver hands over their driver's license. The officer insists that they need VALID identification and the out of state driver's license doesn't count. (Bonus points if the officer confiscates the "illegal driver's license" and refuses to return it )
Step 4: The driver is arrested for driving without a valid license. If they are Latino (or just "look or sound foreign"), they are placed with some immigrants and threatened with deportation regardless of their actual citizenship status.
If they wanted to make up a reason to stop people they don't need this law
From my basic understanding, those states, you'd need a REAL ID to be a valid driver. I know I don't have one.
It would be used as pretense to stop those out of state plates, that will be in their own classification, and come up as a flag on officer computers, scanners etc. From there it's all discretion on the officers part on how they handle it. If their boss needs bodies, they'll be had, ime.
I won't be going to Florida anytime soon, for sure.
The news articles and posts about it are deliberately vague to generate outrage. The bill only applies to licenses exclusively issued to people without legal status.
http://laws.flrules.org/2023/40
Thanks for clarification.
I am confused cause I found :
That includes licenses with classifications such as “Not For Federal Identification”, “Driving Privilege Only” and “Not Valid for Identification
"Not for federal indefication" is used for all non real id's, right?
So do these all now fall into their own classification regardless of legal status?
Im still still confused.
I'm guessing this is to catch commercial drivers with higher endorsements, possibly a semi or bus driver. States regularly have stricter licensing guidelines than each other, and Florida has added citizenship as a requirement. The listed states apparently do not check this.
Ah I think I grasp it now. So those states that don't check legal status are now, by default, all getting classified on FLs end? It seems like a rather unnecessary contact point for our legal system, and has potential to be abused, outside of illegal immigrants.
From my understanding, non-real ID can still be used for federal identification- seeing as they can still be used to enter federal buildings and verify identity in other ways. It's just viewed as a less standardly secure form of federal identification.
if youre hispanic and from california this could be a "valid" pretext for a stop. and then whatever is found in the stop is allowed to be used against the person. the person described above couldve been born here but with this law their rights are violated because of the way they look.
That's how I read it. What's vague about it?
A police officer can and will find anything to pull you over, so that’s not hard at all. And, of course, resisting arrest is a reason to arrest you.
They don't need a reason. They can make one up. If you have a public defender, your not making that argument in court. Your takin a plea.
I've witnessed the "resisting arrest" tactic in person. In police interactions, they drum up as many charges as they can so the little misdemeanors stick and you become more likely to plead out. Just my experience and opinion.
The reason to stop comes up only if your lawyer brings it up. A public defender isn't going to bring it up because it requires being able to build enough doubt to have the judge inquiry. And a judge is going to be less favorable in giving a benefit of the doubt for a public defender. If you cannot afford a lawyer, you're less likely to afford the filing should the court go down that road of police inquiry.
This is why most people who go with public defenders just go with simple bench arranged plea deals. The vast majority of people pulled over aren't going to have the resources to challenge this. That's the entire point.
This is so true. I had a public defender. They did literally nothing, and would only have done so if I had done all the leg work and brought my case to them. If you don't have a good paid lawyer, your getting smoked. The cops can say absolutely anything in the report and in court and your guilty until proven innocent unless you've got a paid lawyer. Plea deals all day. It's messed up. I even had the strange inclination that my PD just straight up worked for the judge tbh. Wouldn't surprise me.
Tbf I've had more luck in blue cities with PDs. In rural red areas, forget it.
Too much contact with the legal system in my life. But now that it's behind me, I feel pretty strongly about removing any unnecessary police contact points, like this law, because I've seen good people get sailed down the river on some b.s.
This just seems ripe for corruption and misuse.
The cops can now just pull anyone over from these states just because of your plates. If they don't like the cut of your jib, your gonna get harassed.