The Wyoming Legislature approved the final version of a bill Tuesday that will more clearly delineate non-U.S. Citizen status on Wyoming driver's licenses and IDs by printing notifications on the back of the cards. Senate File 33 creates a new driver’s license and state ID for those who are in the country legally but are not a U.S. citizen.
The current disclaimer on state ID cards and licenses reads “NR” for non-resident and is listed on the front of the cards. The new cards, if approved by Gov. Mark Gordon, will state "Not A U.S. citizen.”
The purpose of the bill is to make it abundantly clear to election judges when a non-U.S. citizen is attempting to vote and for law enforcement officers when they encounter one of these individuals. It’s one of a dozen bills brought in this year’s Legislature as an attempt to curb illegal immigration.
Although state Sen. John Kolb, R-Rock Springs, supported SF 33, which is now headed to Gordon’s desk, he expressed deep frustration on Tuesday that the bill didn’t turn out the way he expected.
SF 33 adds a much larger disclaimer to Wyoming’s non-citizen IDs that the person on the cards is not a U.S. citizen. Kolb’s irritation is that this disclaimer, at least initially, will be located on the back of the cards.
“We never, never had a conversation about putting something on the back of cards during the interim topic conversations about where this would go- it never came up,” he said during a Joint Conference Committee (JCC) on the bill on Tuesday. “It’s the first time I’ve heard about putting that on the back.”
Kolb also expressed frustration that the new disclaimer will be written in black font rather than the green and red colors proposed while the bill was being discussed. He does not believe this will draw enough attention for the person in charge of inspecting the cards.
“We’re trying to make it obvious and stand out, we’re just losing,” he said. “Instead of being in the front, we’re going to the back. And then we go to the back, we go to black."
The Reasoning
Taylor Rossetti, deputy director and support services administrator for the Wyoming Department of Transportation, said although it wouldn’t be impossible to put this disclaimer on the front of the cards, the most logical place for it to go would be on the back so it’s clear for all election officials and not hidden by other text. The bill does not state that WYDOT has to put the disclaimer on the front of the cards or in color.
This didn’t convince Kolb.
“I just don’t like the way this is going,” Kolb said. “We voted for something, we removed something, and then it gets changed, and now we’re not in a position to do much about it at this point. WYDOT’s going to make a decision. I just want to voice my disagreement with that kind of an outcome.”
Kolb also questioned Rossetti if there would be a way to make the font red “or is that some sort of other quarter of a million dollar extra upcharge?
“I guess I’m disappointed because we never spoke of this,” he said.
Rossetti pushed back on Kolb’s conclusion, saying the bill offers no color designation and that doing so would in fact cost $250,000, a proposal that was rejected when the bill was at the committee stage. He described the current bill as the “compromise of the compromises.”
Sen. Stephan Pappas, R-Cheyenne, said although the location of the disclaimer and its color wasn’t brought up during last summer’s interim session as Kolb mentioned, it was brought up during committee meetings in this year’s legislative session. He said legislators were told by WYDOT staff “real estate” exists on both sides of the card for this disclaimer.
Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, also pointed out that the only change the JCC could make on Tuesday was to the language of the disclaimer, as that was the only difference between the House and Senate’s versions of the bill. A JCC exists to iron out the differences between the two chamber’s actions on a single piece of legislation.
Pappas then added putting the disclaimer on the back doesn’t bother him, which again drew a response from Kolb, who argued that WYDOT’s internal rulemaking is hindering the will of the Legislature.
“Well, apparently, we can’t even talk about that Mr. Chairman,” Kolb said. “It’s unfortunate we’re talking about this point now where all we’re talking about is this and they have rulemaking authority to do basically what the heck they want to.”
Evolutions
Rossetti explained that as currently designed, the "Not A U.S. citizen" phrase wouldn’t fit well on the front of the IDs, as much of the front side space is already reserved for driving information used by law enforcement, such as height and weight statistics.
Conversely, he said there’s plenty of free space on the back of the IDs for the disclaimer and other potential new information, and the back of these cards has the same style for both the under and over 21-year-old versions. The disclaimer, he said, would be “readily apparent” and written in bold font.
“There’s plenty of room there to be in the text of ‘Not A U.S. Citizen” in bold font that would stick out from the rest of the card,” he said.
A total of $67,000 has been budgeted to create the new cards.
Kolb asked Rossetti how much it would impact this cost to have the disclaimer written on both the front and back of the cards. Rossetti said there would be no additional cost but the only way it could fit on the front is if information already there was removed and put on the back.
“There’s really very limited room on the front of that card,” Rossetti said.
Because of this hurdle, Rossetti said his staff urged legislators to not be overly prescriptive about what goes on the front and back of the new cards in the way they wrote the bill. He said this will allow for much more flexibility down the road when WYDOT redesigns its cards in the future, which could then lead to putting the disclaimer on the front.
“It’s very clear by this discussion and all of the discussion that we’ve had related to this bill and other bills that it is the desire of the body to try and find room on the front of the card to display a designation such as this,” he said.
Secretary of State Chuck Gray said the location of the disclaimer was an acceptable compromise in order to get the bill passed. He mentioned how the "NR" designation is not on the non-citizen cards of legal, long-term residents.
"This bill fixes that problem so that it will have the non-citizen designation in these cases, while also making the designation itself clearer," he said. "We will continue to work to strengthen the tools for election integrity in Wyoming by making these designations more and more prominent. This is a massive step in the right direction."
Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, also said he likes this backside location for the disclaimer as it allows it to be written out in full.
An earlier version of the bill would have had the disclaimer read “Not U.S.”, which Pappas said he preferred in order to make it short as possible in order to give more flexibility to fit wherever desired on a card.
An amendment brought by Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, added the word “Citizen” to this title.
Rossetti said there are roughly 3,000 temporary non-citizen cards issued in Wyoming right now, which will expire when those people are no longer supposed to be in the country. An additional 6,000 Wyoming people have permanent lawful status in the country that are non-U.S. citizens, making about 9,000-10,000 people eligible for the newly revamped cards.
The JCC unanimously adopted the House’s version of the bill, which was approved by the Senate on a 28-3 vote later in the day. Kolb also voted in support of adopting the bill.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
