State motor vehicle officials adopted emergency rules late Tuesday that seem to keep in place a controversial two-document identification requirement for anyone applying for a driver’s license or ID card.
It was unclear what the rules are and the Division of Motor Vehicles website was not updated to indicate that any emergency adoption had occurred.
Revenue director M. Michael Cooke oversees the DMV and has said she would consider adopting emergency rules that would keep in place, at least temporarily, the two-document requirement even though a Denver judge required the agency to scrap it by today.
State law allows for emergency rules to remain in effect for up to three months – enough time for officials to go through a public hearing process that Denver Chief District Judge Larry Naves said the agency failed to do when it first adopted them.
Cooke could not be reached late Tuesday, though she said in a statement the emergency procedures will allow driver’s license offices to accept new applications today.
“The emergency rules will allow the Department of Revenue to continue to issue driver’s licenses and ID cards to people who can prove their identity and legal presence in the United States,” Cooke said in the statement.
She has said she did not think a single document, such as a U.S. passport, could sufficiently satisfy those requirements.
Colorado law requires an applicant to prove legal presence in the U.S. as well as their age and identity.
The statement also said applicants could visit the Revenue Department website for “general guidelines listing the documents that may satisfy statutory requirements.”
The website late Tuesday still showed the 19 document types applicants can draw from to prove legal presence, age and identity. It also still showed applicants must provide two forms of identification record – one drawn from a list of 13 types to prove age and lawful presence and the other from a list of six to prove name. The website also said that a U.S. passport was not sufficient proof for both categories.
Naves’ decision came in a lawsuit brought by people who had difficulty getting licenses or ID cards, many of them homeless, because they did not have the documents the state requires.
Attorneys who argued for the injunction said that state officials have not consulted with them about an approach to Naves’ restriction.
