Undocumented immigrants are able to obtain driver's license from 10 US states and Washington, D.C., which have a combined illegal immigrant population of 4.12 million people, an independent non-profit, non-governmental organization revealed.
To date, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Vermont, and Washington plus the District of Columbia are issuing the license to "nearly 37 percent of unauthorised immigrants who live in a jurisdiction where they may obtain a license," according to a report by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
"Regulation of driver's licenses is a state-level function, and state legislative activity around this question has increased in recent years," the Pew report said.
In 2013, eight states and the District of Columbia passed laws that allowed undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's license.
This year, Delaware and Hawaii enacted similar laws but have not started issuing the licenses.
Since January, when California started issuing driver's license to undocumented immigrants, about 442,000 have applied, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Last month, there were 35,000 applicants.
California's driver's license indicates a "federal limits apply" while New Mexico and Washington issue the same license regardless of immigration status of the applicant, according to Newsmax.
In the next three years, officials from California's Department of Motor Vehicles estimate that about 1.4 million undocumented immigrants will apply for a driver's license.
The Pew report estimates that 3.5 percent of the US population are undocumented immigrants. Of the estimated 11.2 million illegal immigrants in the US, 2.45 million or 22 percent live in California.
The process of issuing the license varies state to state.
"Seven states and the District of Columbia require applicants to translate foreign-issued identity and residency documents into English," the Pew report said. "Four offer special procedures so that those who do not have the required documents can be considered on a case-by-case basis."
With the increase in applicants, "states may need to hire additional employees," the report said, noting that the cost of new personnel was the highest anticipated expense.
California said it would likely hire about 822 new limited-term position while Illinois has hired 100 people including bilingual call operators for the appointment system.
The operating costs in implementing the driver's license programme for undocumented immigrants are estimated between $140 million and $220 million in California and the application fee revenue would be about $50 million over the next three years.
