Editor's Note: This story has been updated to correct that the Wyoming Department of Transportation, not lawmakers, is responsible for making the rules for how law enforcement should implement HB 116.
Wyoming law enforcement agencies will no longer recognize licenses granted to undocumented drivers due to a new law that went into effect July 1.
Those without documentation could be charged with a misdemeanor for driving in Wyoming. That’s even if the driver has a license issued in one of the 19 states that grant them without regard to citizenship status.
Some of these states mark citizenship status on their licenses while others, like Washington, don’t.
Rosie Read, executive director of the Wyoming Immigrant Advocacy Project in Jackson, said possible discrimination could occur when trying to determine which of the license holders from states like Washington do not have level status and which do.
“As a legal matter, it’s discriminatory if you only ask some people,” Read said.
Read said depending on how officers enforce this new law, it could lead to cases of racial profiling, a violation of the 14th Amendment, grounds that could subject law enforcement to lawsuits.
The law says direction for how officers should implement the law will come from the Wyoming Department of Transportation. As of the week of June 23, Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr said he still hadn’t received that information yet.
Antonio Serrano, advocacy director at the Wyoming Chapter of the ACLU, said people with precarious immigration status should try to limit their driving, though he noted that may be unrealistic for some.
“We’re in a terrible place if that’s the recommendation we’re having to tell people,” Serrano said. “To tell people that you can’t drive in Wyoming where we have more winter than summer and people have to go so far for work.”
For those who must still drive, he offered some advice.
“Make sure your headlights are both running, make sure your taillights are both running, make sure your license plates [are good], no cracked windshields,” Serrano said.
Serrano fears that the law prevents immigrants from trusting police, adding that some departments are more eager to assist in immigration enforcement than others.
“Law enforcement is looking for any reason to pull over Brown people right now,” he said.
Since Pres. Donald Trump’s second administration began in January, both Wyoming and the country have seen an uptick in local law enforcement partnerships with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Before January, only one county sheriff’s department in the state had signed a partnership agreement with ICE. That was Sweetwater County, but now Campbell, Natrona, Laramie and Carbon counties have followed suit, an upward trend that also tracks nationwide.
Earlier this month, Idaho entered into a statewide agreement with ICE, impacting Jackson workers who commute from over Teton Pass.
