Study Finds Driver's Licenses for Illegal Aliens has No Impact on Number of Insured Drivers
A report from the Insurance Research Council has found no correlation between a law in New Mexico that allows illegal aliens to receive a driver's license and the number of uninsured motorists on the road. Supporters of state laws that would issue driver's licenses to illegal aliens say it would increase the number of insured motorists, but the study found that the number of uninsured motorists in New Mexico from the time just before the state passed its law and the present are about the same.
New Mexico is one of three states to issue driver's licenses to illegal aliens.
"If the policy is motivated by a lowering of uninsured motorists or decreasing accidents, I think it has had an insignificant effect," said J. Tim Query, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Risk Management and Insurance at New Mexico State University, told Fox News Latino.
The report from the Insurance Research Council found that, in 2000, 26.3% of New Mexico driver's were uninsured. In 2008, five years after the state passed a law allowing illegal aliens to get a license, the figure had jumped to 29.5% - the highest level of uninsured driver's in the nation. In 2009, the figure was still at a high 25.7%.
Supporters of the law say it has led to fewer accidents.
"Fatalities have dropped in New Mexico, but they have also dropped nationwide, which includes 48 states that do not allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses," Query said. "What little accident data I've seen doesn’t specifically point to the driver's license policy as a reason for any positive trends."
Gov. Susana Martinez has said she wants the law repealed, but has been unsuccessful since taking office last year.
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