A new law in Wyoming states that "driver's licenses and driving operating privilege cards issued by other jurisdictions to unauthorized aliens are invalid in Wyoming."
The law, which went into effect on July 1, makes those holding an invalid license eligible for a citation with a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $750 and/or six months in jail.
Wyoming Highway Patrol Colonel Timothy Cameron told Overdrive that 19 states issue drivers' licenses to "unauthorized immigrants," but those type of licenses doesn't always mean the holder is in the country illegally. The bill follows legislation in Arkansas and Oklahoma aimed at foreign credentials and non-English-speaking drivers, but according to Cameron, this one is more passenger-car facing.
In order to get charged with the misdemeanor offense of "Driving while license cancelled, suspended, invalid or revoked," the driver must "be a non-resident alien and they had to be legally admitted," said Cameron.
No state issues licenses that say "I'm here illegally," so when Wyoming Highway Patrol officers encounter a non-resident ID card, they have to investigate further. "So, if we stop someone and they give, say, a Washington state driver's license that says non-resident alien," Cameron added, WHP will ask a follow up: "Do you have your visa, your I-94 [temporary work authorization form] that proves you were legally admitted into the U.S.?"
If they have that paperwork available, "that ends that inquiry," said Cameron. If not, WHP may "call the [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] hotline to run that person through their files to determine if they were legally admitted."
ICE can provide information on whether the person came into the U.S. legally and at what point of entry, but if they did not enter the country legally, and "there are no criminal warrants and no detainers on them, we could write the citation because in that instance they wouldn’t satisfy the requirements" of the new bill.
What does this mean for trucking? The Department of Transportation is carrying out a nationwide "audit" of non-domiciled CDLs, often issued to non-citizens, but according to Cameron, those commercial drivers have already had to show a visa or I-94.
[Related: Ban non-domiciled CDLs for non-citizens? Owner-ops weigh in]
In the case of stopping a commercial motor vehicle "based on a violation observed by trooper or inspector, the first thing they’re going to do is look at the license and determine the status of the license," said Cameron. Yet all CDL holders, even non-citizens, are understood by law enforcement to have at the very least demonstrated proof of lawful presence in the country.
In that way, Wyoming's new law won't really impact the trucking industry or who goes up and down I-80.
Illegal immigrants driving trucks has "not really been a problem for us," said Cameron. Instead, the truly illegal operations WHP encounters often involve "people who don't have a CDL at all."
In 2024, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 1.83% of all recorded violations went down under the violation code with this descriptor: "Allowing driver to drive with suspended/revoked/etc. CDL."
But while Wyoming's new state law won't likely impact trucking, the new FMCSA guidance on English language proficiency has made its mark, with WHP saying it issued 66 violations of 391.11(b)(2) for "Driver cannot satisfy English language proficiency, failed interview" in the month of June, making it a top 10 violation in Wyoming.
Cameron said these ELP violations would be out-of-service violations.
Keep in mind, the new out-of-service designation for English violations only went into effect on June 25.
Cameron said even in his limited time doing truck enforcement, he'd encountered drivers with "zero" English, and that even when 391.11(b)(2) wasn't an out-of-service violation, Wyoming would still note a lack of English on its inspection reports.
