How I Got My New Mexico Driver’s License
June 3, 2010 in News Article by TX DREAM Act Alliance
The New Mexico sunset is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. The air and desert almost seems cleaner than it does in Arizona, my home state. It’s a few weeks after SB 1070 in Arizona passed and I’m standing in the parking lot of a strip mall on a hill in Albuquerque, emotionally and physically exhausted. I’m standing in front of the third New Mexico MVD I’ve visited in the last four days. This is the fifth time I’ve been to an MVD and I’m hoping that it will be my last. I grab the handle, hold my breath, pull the door, feel the rush of AC hit my face and step in. Here we go.
Rewind four days. I traveled to New Mexico to get my New Mexico Driver’s License. As an undocumented student I cannot legally get any form of U.S. State or Government identification in Arizona. This has periodically caused problems in my life.
For most of my life I got by on my Mexican-issued Matricula Consular. For the most part, I was able to use that to get by though I would periodically get an over 21 establishment that would refuse to serve me. I was even able to get on planes, but I would get the occasional glance from the TSA official. Luckily, the Matricula (and Mexican Passport, as I would later found out) are both in the TSA booklet for approved forms of identification when flying.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t use my Matricula for simple things like buying allergy medication from behind the counter as most states require a U.S. form of government ID. And more importantly, in group settings when the people around me would show their licenses, I would have to quickly take out my Matricula, show it and hope no one saw it or asked questions.
Eventually, I obtained a Mexican Passport which was a seven hour ordeal at the Mexican Embassy that cost over $100. But it was worth it. As one of my good friends put it, the Mexican Passport was “like gold†and accepted everywhere. I used it to fly on a regular basis and it never got a second look from people checking my age or ID. But a few months ago, I realized that this was no longer enough.
With Arizona’s SB 1070 and the recent increase in anti-immigration rhetoric and enforcement across the country I decided to travel to New Mexico in order to get a driver’s license. New Mexico is one of the few states that allow undocumented immigrants to obtain licenses and their roads are safer for it. A license also arouses less suspicion than foreign identification. A few of my friends had previously traveled to New Mexico to get their licenses. Last year, I used their experiences and New Mexico’s MVD website to cobble together an online step-by-step guide to obtain a license in New Mexico for the Texas DREAM Act Alliance. Ironically, however, I hadn’t gone through the process myself.
I arrived in New Mexico on a Tuesday morning. And so began the longest week of my life.
First stop, the private MVD. To get a license you have to pass both a written and an oral test. You can take it at the government MVD but the wait times can be upwards to two weeks. New Mexico is unique in that there are private MVDs scattered across the state where you can take both tests and then take your results to the government MVD. I was terrified about taking the test. While I had been practicing driving off and on for the last five years, I had yet to drive on the highway for more than an hour and had a combined five hours of total driving time. Would I end up coming all the way to New Mexico only to fail to get my license because I couldn’t actually drive?
Luckily, the written test was a brief and easy. The driving test was a quick drive around the block and, aside from an unfortunate incident with the parking break, went smoothly. My most terrifying moment was when the instructor asked me to turn on the windshield wipers. It was a borrowed car and for a good ten seconds I had no idea how to turn on the wipers.
Tip #1: Know how to turn on the windshield wipers.
Next was the government MVD. The first visit to the MVD was a bust. The reason? New Mexico MVDs close at 4PM. I arrived at 4:09PM. The following day I didn’t fare any better. I returned for a second time but was turned away because my bank account statement, one of the two proofs of residency, was printed from a computer and not mailed directly to my New Mexico Address.
Tip #2: If using a bank account statement was a proof of residency, have it mailed to your NM address – printed bank statements will not be accepted.
I returned a third time but was turned away again because my lease was executed by the same person that wrote my affidavit of New Mexico residency.
Tip #3: The person that writes an affidavit of residency on your behalf cannot also be your landlord on a lease you present to the MVD.
At this point, I had to start going to a new MVD. I waited about two hours to see a clerk before being turned away a fourth time. This MVD (the one in downtown Alburqurque which you should avoid at all costs) found problems with my documentation that no other MVD had pointed out, including problems with: (a) my lease; (b) my passport; and (c) my ITIN letter.
Tip #4: Do not go to the MVD in downtown Albuquerque, multiple DREAMers have had problems with this MVD. It is the MVD from hell.
Frustrated and on the verge of tears, I threw caution to the wind and decided to go to a brand new MVD with all the same documents I had taken to the downtown MVD. This would be my fifth visit to the MVD.
And now we’re back to the beginning of the story.
I grab the handle, hold my breath, pull the door, feel the rush of AC hit my face and step in. Here we go. Again.
I ended up getting the meanest, rudest and stubborn MVD clerk in the entire place. He pointed out errors in my documents that didn’t exist. I tried telling him but he refused to listen and literally shoved all the documents back into my hands. Calmly, I explained the situation and after five minutes of arguing he finally realized that he was wrong. He accepted all my documents and begins processing the license.
Keep in mind, that these were all the same documents that the previous MVD had rejected.
Tip #5: If at first you don’t succeed, try five more times.
It was finally happening. I was about to get my temporary license and would soon have my permanent license in the mail. And then, just as my temporary license was about to print… the entire New Mexico MVD computer system crashed. Every MVD in the state went down.
At this point, I concluded that God did not want me to get my license. Clearly, this was the only rationale, logical explanation.
I hung out and waited, talking to the clerks desperately hoping system to come back online. Estimates were anywhere from ten minutes to two days. Great.
Finally, after an hour of agonizing waiting, the system came back up. They printed my temporary license and I ran out of the MVD as fast as I could. It took five visits, three MVDs and a total of three days, but I now had in my hand a temporary license with the permanent license in the mail in two to three weeks.
That was about a month ago. This morning I received my brand new NM license in the mail. I don’t think I’ve ever looked as happy in a picture as I do in my license picture.
It was a difficult process, but if I had to do it all over again – I would.
My license wasn’t the only good thing that came out of the trip. I used my experience to update the TDAA License guide which was a little out of date. As a result, it’s now one of the most comprehensive step by step guides on how to get a New Mexico license.
The New Mexico license isn’t infallible. In Arizona, an officer stopping you can still ask additional questions about your citizenship even if you show them a New Mexico license because it is common knowledge in enforcement circles that New Mexico offers licenses to undocumented immigrants. But still, aside from giving me the ability to legally drive in the United States it also gives me something else that is immeasurable and that seems to be in short supply these days – peace of mind.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go for a drink. Here’s to hoping they card.
Click below for the new and improved guide to getting a New Mexico Driver’s License hosted by the Texas DREAM Act Alliance.












