HB0287- Immigrant Driving Amendments
Author: Abigail Jones
Jones, Abigail. "Bill that would end driving privilege card program for immigrants is in committee." ABC4, 28 Jan. 2026. https://www.abc4.com/news/politics/bill-end-driving-privilege-card-immigrants. Accessed 15 Jan. 2026.
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SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — A bill introduced by Rep. Trevor Lee (R-Davis County) that would end the driving privilege card program for immigrants is currently in the House Rules Committee, waiting to be discussed.
Representative Lee began his legislative service in 2023 and currently represents Utah’s House District 16, which covers parts of Davis County. He graduated from Davis High School and holds a degree in technical sales with a minor in Spanish from Weber State University. His professional background includes owning a wealth management company and consulting for businesses. This diverse experience has equipped him with a practical understanding of the financial challenges faced by small businesses and families.
You’re asking a really specific, local question (nice move for being an engaged constituent), so here’s what I can see from public records and news about Sen. Todd Weiler and related immigration/“law and order” issues in Utah.
- HB287 itself is a House bill sponsored by Rep. Trevor Lee, and I don’t see any record yet of how Sen. Weiler has voted on it because it’s still early in the 2026 session and the bill is sitting in House Rules, not the Senate. (ACLU of Utah, HB287 Immigrant Driving Amendments, 2026)
- Sen. Weiler has actually sponsored a previous bill that adjusted the existing driving privilege card program rather than ending it—SB 132 in 2023 added fingerprinting requirements for driving privilege cards but kept the program in place. (Utah State Legislature, SB132, 2023)
- On another immigration‑related “tough” bill in 2025 that increased state-level penalties to trigger more deportations, Weiler broke with many Republicans and joined Democrats in voting against it, with coverage noting his concern that it would mostly hit legal immigrants. (Utah News Dispatch, 2025)
- In a 2026 hearing on SB136 (about restricting ICE and other law enforcement from wearing masks and limiting cooperation in certain immigration contexts), Weiler chaired the committee and questioned the sponsor pretty skeptically about tying the bill to Utah’s “state sovereignty” law, signaling a fairly conservative approach to immigration enforcement but also a concern about how new limits interact with existing state‑power frameworks. (The Salt Lake Tribune, 2026)
Given that history—supporting stricter background rules for driving cards but opposing at least one aggressive deportation bill—what do you most want to know or say to Sen. Weiler about HB287 when you contact his office, and would you rather keep talking it through here with Continue with AI or go over to Create Document to draft a message or upload related sources?
Here’s what I can see so far about Rep. Ray Ward and bills like HB287 (ending the driving‑privilege‑card program); there isn’t a clean, public pattern yet that pins down his exact stance on this specific bill type:
- HB287 is brand‑new this session and still sitting in House Rules, so there’s no floor vote record yet for any House member, including Ward. (ACLU of Utah, HB287 Immigrant Driving Amendments, 2026)
- In recent sessions Ward has often branded himself as a pragmatic, data‑driven Republican (especially on health policy and social services), which has sometimes meant breaking with more hard‑line members of his party on issues where he thinks there are unintended harms, but I don’t see clear public quotes from him specifically about driving‑privilege cards or Trevor Lee’s immigration package. (Utah House of Representatives, Member Page: Raymond P. Ward, n.d.)
- Because HB287 hasn’t had a committee hearing or a vote yet, the best way to gauge Ward’s position is to ask his office directly how he’s leaning and what evidence he’s using (public safety data, insurance rates, immigrant‑rights concerns, etc.). (Utah State Legislature, HB287 Bill Status, 2026)
- If you tell his staff that you’re in his district and say one or two concrete things you want him to consider (for example, crash/insurance safety vs. fear of ICE reporting), you’re more likely to get a specific answer back rather than a form response. (Utah House of Representatives, Member Page: Raymond P. Ward, n.d.)
If you were writing or calling Rep. Ward today about HB287, what’s one clear sentence you’d want to say to him—and do you want to draft that now with Continue with AI or head over to Create Document to start a message or upload something you’re working from?
A driving privilege card is issued to undocumented immigrants without lawful presence status. It is a Class D license that allows the holder to drive a motor vehicle but cannot be used as identification by any Utah government entity, according to the Driver License Division. These cards can also be issued to individuals who are paroled in the U.S.
This bill appears to be part of Lee’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration in Utah. It is now in the House Rules Committee, where it will be discussed. Members of the committee will need to vote to move it forward so it can receive a vote on the House floor, which has not yet happened.
H.B. 287 Immigrant Driving Amendments would repeal the driving privilege card program and prohibit the Driver’s License Division from issuing a driving privilege card after May 6, 2026. Driving privilege cards issued prior to May 6, 2026, would continue to be valid until the expiration date of the card.
Additionally, it would require law enforcement to report to ICE if an undocumented immigrant is involved in a motor vehicle accident.
The substitute would also create a “rebuttable presumption of fault for purposes of an insurance claim” if an undocumented immigrant is involved in a motor vehicle accident. Essentially, what this means is that if an undocumented immigrant gets in an accident, they are automatically considered to be at fault in the accident unless that is disproven by “clear and convincing evidence.”
In addition to the other two changes from the first substitute, the second substitute would also allow insurance companies to sell coverage to individuals without a driver’s license.
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Utah is one of 19 states (and the District of Columbia) that has laws allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain some form of driving license, including New York, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, and Washington.
https://www.abc4.com/news/politics/bill-end-driving-privilege-card-immigrants/
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