Ohio Governor Signs New Law That Will Make Life Harder for Immigrants

Ohio Gov. Mike Devine signed a controversial bill that would require state-issued ID cards and driver's licenses to show that the holder is not a U.S. citizen. Yahoo News.

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Advocacy groups condemned the move, arguing that the specific provision of House Bill 458 would make it difficult for immigrants to obtain the credentials they need.

According to immigrant advocates, the inclusion of such information on identity cards could lead to discrimination and harassment of immigrant communities.

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“Our biggest concerns about the noncitizen designation are that it would disincentivize noncitizens from getting a government ID and could make the process even more difficult for noncitizens at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles,” said Corrilee Drozda, who works with immigrants at the Legal Aid Society Cleveland. “Our clients often tell us that the BMV wrongly denied them because the BMV was not familiar with the type of document that supported their qualifying immigration status.”

Drozda also argued that it was "unnecessary and harmful" to refer to people as non-citizens on their identity cards.

“Our non-citizen clients already have to jump through a lot of barriers to get a driver's license or state ID,” she says.

“Due to linguistic, cultural differences, ignorance of the US legal system, and fear of immigration control, many Ohio non-citizens are hesitant to share their information with government agencies and report criminal activity in their communities,” she continued.

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The provision has also been heavily criticized for reportedly making it harder for many communities to vote.

Among the law's requirements is to limit counties to only one ballot box, regardless of the county's population. The legislation also eliminates in-person early voting day, which voting rights advocates fear will effectively disenfranchise many poor voters of color, especially the significant number of residents whose driver's licenses are suspended due to debt.

Organizations in Ohio, including the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, the Ohio Federation of Teachers, the Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans, and the Union Veterans Council, have filed a lawsuit against Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and 88 state election commissions to strike down such provisions in the law .

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Meanwhile, DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney defended the measure, saying it could protect immigrants from unintentionally voting illegal ballots. He noted that "while cases of electoral fraud are indeed rare, the vast majority of such cases involve non-citizen voting."

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