Driving cards worry some legal residents

"As a community bank, Zions sees its acceptance of the driving privilege card as another way we help make banking as convenient as possible for our local Latino neighbors," said Scott Anderson, Zions president and CEO, in a news release Tuesday.

But McCulloch is concerned that Canadian authorities won't recognize the driving privilege card as valid permission to drive.

Once a year, his wife makes a 20-hour drive from Salt Lake City to Manitoba to visit family. If she is pulled over by Canadian authorities, McCulloch wonders, will there be problems if she is carrying a privilege card and not a license?

Probably not.

Authorities in British Columbia's and Saskatchewan's insurance divisions, which are in charge of issuing driver's licenses for their respective provinces, had never heard of driving privilege cards.

But officers there aren't personally familiar with driver's licenses from all 50 states anyway, said Sgt. Gilles Deziel of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. If needed, RCMP officers can run license numbers through databases in Canada and the United States to check for anything suspicious.

"There's no way to recognize them all," he said.

That was a relief to McCulloch.

As far as driving in other states is concerned, there shouldn't be a problem, said state Rep. Curtis Oda, R-Clearfield.

Bramble agreed.

Legally, the driving privilege card carries the same weight and acts as a license, just without the ability to act as identification for voting, boarding an airplane, jury duty or buying firearms. Other states should recognize the cards, he said.

Oda said there is a movement across the United States for states to adopt driving privilege cards for immigrants, because legislators in other states are finding that it is too easy for immigrants to get licenses.

Utah is the second state with a two-tiered driver's licensing system. A similar law took effect in Tennessee last year.

David Lubell, state coordinator of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said anecdotal evidence shows holders of that state's "certificate of driving" have trouble finding insurance.

"A lot of insurance companies are not accepting these certificates," he said. "A lot are charging higher rates. People are being unfairly rejected."

State Farm has been reported as one agency that refuses to issue insurance to certificate holders.

However, State Farm spokeswoman Sharon Layman said her company accepts the Tennessee certificates and is reviewing Utah's driving privilege cards to see if they'll be accepted.

Layman said State Farm accepts for insurance licenses that are recognized by the state and that track traffic violations and accidents.