"[I]t must end": Boyles again dispensed falsehoods regarding new driver's license ID requirements

On his June 29 broadcast on 630 KHOW-AM, Peter Boyles repeated his false claim that new state identification rules allow “illegal [immigrants] to get a driver's license” because the requirements are “simply [House Bill] 1313 in a bureaucratic form.” In fact, the rules bar some documents that would have been permitted under the bill, which Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter vetoed.

Repeating his claim that the Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles' (DMV) new identification requirements allow “illegal [immigrants] to get a driver's license,” 630 KHOW-AM host Peter Boyles on his June 29 broadcast again falsely stated that the new DMV rules are “simply [House Bill] 1313 in a bureaucratic form.” Boyles' reference was to legislation that Gov. Bill Ritter (D) vetoed, which would have revised the documentation needed to obtain a state driver's license. However, the use of tax documents, insurance documents, and prison identification documents that would have been permitted under HB 1313 is barred under the DMV's new rules, except in cases that would entail an investigation by the Motor Vehicle Investigations Unit for Exceptions Processing. Moreover, unlike HB 1313, the new DMV rules specify that a stand-alone driver's license or identification document issued by another state, as well as a “military identification card or its equivalent,” must include a photograph.

As Colorado Media Matters has documented (here, here, and here), Boyles repeatedly has distorted the DMV's new requirements -- which go into effect August 1 -- while likening their implementation to “date rape.”

After declaring “a draw” in the fight over the failed U.S. Senate immigration reform bill, Boyles urged his listeners to help him defeat the DMV's new ID requirements.

From the June 29 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show:

BOYLES: All right, now, on -- there's been a national win. Or at least you fought 'em to a draw.

CALLER: Right. Exactly.

BOYLES: Now, now it's Ritter. Now it's Ritter on -- and I'm telling you right now, what they did with CCR 204-13 rules -- they, number one, should have held a public hearing; but number two, this is simply 1313 in a bureaucratic form. And this is the allowance for the illegal to get a driver's license. And it must end.

In fact, numerous changes to the new rules toughen the ID requirements when compared to HB 1313. For example, section 2(2)(a)(II) of HB 1313 did not specify that in order to qualify as proof of identity and lawful residence, an out-of-state driver's license or ID card “standing alone” must include a photograph, as the new rules state in section 2.3.1.3. Similarly, while section 2(2)(b)(III)(B) of HB 1313 permitted “a military identification card or its equivalent without a photograph” as a secondary document, section 2.3.1.5 of the new rules permits only military documents “that bear[] a photograph.”

Furthermore, the new rules no longer permit as secondary documents "[a]n individual Colorado or federal tax return" with a W-2 or 1099, "[a]n identity document issued by the Federal Bureau of Prisons or a Department of Corrections of any state," or "[a] life, health, or other insurance record" -- all of which were permitted under HB 1313 (respectively, in sections 2(2)(IV)(b)(III)(C), (E), and (G) of the bill).

Moreover, according to the new rules, the secondary documents listed above may only be submitted under cases that go through Exception Processing, which, according to section 1.5 is a "[r]eview of documentary evidence presented by an Applicant when it appears that the Applicant cannot provide the documents otherwise required." These documents then would be submitted “at the Applicant's discretion” (section 4.4) to the Motor Vehicle Investigations Unit for Exceptions Processing, which, according to section 5.2 of the rules, “will review all available documentation to determine whether the Applicant's Identity, Age, and Lawful Presence can be established by a combination of Documents.”

Further contradicting Boyles' assertion that the ID requirements are "[House Bill] 1313 in a bureaucratic form," a June 5 Rocky Mountain News editorial called the DMV rules “a big improvement over those in House Bill 1313” and reiterated that "[t]he new, department-issued guidelines [are] certainly better than the provisions of HB 1313." The News further noted that the bill “would have allowed applicants to get driver's licenses if they presented a host of expired documents, including some out-of-state licenses and military IDs that lacked photographs.”