A divide is forming between House lawmakers backing a bill that would invalidate out-of-state driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants and senators worried about unintended consequences.
House Bill 116, “Driver’s licenses-unauthorized alien restrictions,” is a key priority for the Wyoming Republican Party and the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, who want the state to address their concerns over illegal immigration, though such enforcement is traditionally a federal issue.
The House, where the Freedom Caucus dominates, passed the bill unamended. Caucus member and Riverton Republican Pepper Ottman sponsored the legislation, which would direct Wyoming law enforcement not to recognize such driver’s licenses — from as many as 19 states — as valid.
House lawmakers were unfazed by concerns raised both about the bill’s morality — since it would make life harder for people already in the state but does not address a flawed federal immigration system — and its practical impacts.
But the Senate has proven more resistant than the House to passing ideologically driven bills without first dissecting their legal and practical considerations. That’s even when the legislation might be on a topic they’d like to see addressed — like increased immigration enforcement by the federal government.
Last week, senators killed a sweeping immigration policing bill brought by one of their own, Torrington Republican Cheri Steinmetz. And this week, in committee hearings and then during floor debate, senators began to raise issues with Ottman’s bill, which they say the House left unaddressed and that pose unknown impacts.
The bill passed its first two votes, which did not carry a roll call, in the Senate this week — setting up a potentially strenuous debate on the bill’s third and final vote.
Some senators have grown concerned that passing the bill will put the state in violation of compacts it has joined for mutual recognition of licenses and other driving records.
Senate Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Chairman Stephan Pappas, a longtime Cheyenne Republican lawmaker, first raised the issue in a meeting of his committee. He still voted to advance the bill to the Senate floor, joining every member of the committee except Sen. Ed Cooper, R-Ten Sleep.
At the time, Cooper called the bill “premature.” That message appears to be the one percolating among skeptical senators, who say they lack information on the potential consequences of passing the law.
Only Florida has passed a similar bill, and that measure’s impacts were ultimately limited. Florida initially applied the law to five states, but the list was eventually whittled down to just two — Connecticut and Delaware — after the other three states provided evidence that exempted them from the law.
In a sign of concern over its law’s impact on travel and tourism, Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Department notes on its website that “Visitors from Connecticut and Delaware are welcome in Florida and will not be pulled over simply for having out-of-state plates.”
Those two states issue a class of driver’s licenses specifically for undocumented immigrants. The driver’s licenses Ottman’s bill would impact come mostly from states that issue a license to people who are not federal citizens. While that includes undocumented immigrants, it also involves legal residents in the United States like those on student or work visas. Such licenses generally carry a distinction that identifies the license as invalid for federal purposes.
But the licenses do not distinguish that the person carrying them is in the country illegally as opposed to with a valid residency status. It would be on Wyoming law enforcement to investigate those people’s immigration status, if they pulled such a driver over.
That’s doable, said Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police Executive Director Allen Thompson. Officers could contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement through their dispatch centers to check on someone’s legal residency status. But Thompson worried about what would happen if ICE agents were not available, as sometimes happens, or if the relay of information took a long time.
“It’s unclear how long we can [legally] extend a stop to investigate that residential status,” he said.
Local law enforcement’s reaction to this bill, as it has been to several other immigration measures, has been accepting at best, and far from enthusiastic. Wyoming’s sheriffs generally prefer to have the flexibility to pursue cooperation with federal immigration authorities themselves.
Since his vote, Pappas has grown increasingly concerned that if lawmakers pass the bill, it might risk state authorities’ access to driving record databases shared by other states Wyoming has signed compacts with, he told WyoFile on Thursday. Mostly, he said, the House appears to have just pushed the bill through without examining the consequences of what to him appears a big step — ignoring lawful licenses issued by other states.
“It is a little frustrating,” Pappas said. “I can’t believe it got through that whole process without anybody thinking about the interstate compacts … Now everybody is scratching their heads.”
Pappas does not have a clear answer to the compact questions, he said, and is waiting for further information from attorneys with several entities, even as the bill bears down on its third Senate vote.
Ottman does not believe compacts are a concern, she told WyoFile.
Other bill opponents have raised the specter of the U.S. Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause, which like the license compacts could be seen as requiring Wyoming to recognize legal records issued by other states. Ottman does not see it that way. The clause requires the recognition just of “valid” acts by other states, Ottman told senators during the committee meeting.
“Giving credentials to illegal immigrants is an invalid act,” Ottman said. But proving her point could likely take significant litigation, since other state legislatures have chosen to create their own laws providing undocumented immigrants in their states a method to get a driver’s license. Lawmakers in those states have largely done so because they believe driver’s licenses lead to increased public safety, as well as to allow immigrants to better assimilate into communities and local economies.
Wyoming’s neighboring states Utah and Colorado are among those that issue licenses to undocumented immigrants.
Pappas is now against the bill, at least for this legislative session, he said. “What is the reason for the bill?” he asked. “The reason I see is really for the ability to push back on immigration.”
Given the possible risks in passing the legislation, Pappas said, “I don’t know if that’s a good enough reason.” He suggested the topic as a possible subject of study ahead of the 2026 budget session.
“Let’s be a little cautious and conservative,” he said.
Wyoming’s immigration debate this legislative session has driven consternation and rancor among the state’s immigrant communities and with their advocates. The Senate hearing on Ottman’s bill touched off a contentious back and forth between a state senator and American Civil Liberties Union Wyoming Advocacy Director Antonio Serrano.
The exchange got to the heart of a divide between the way many lawmakers in the Wyoming Capitol view illegal immigration and the realities lived by some people who have been working in the state for decades without documentation.
The driver’s license bill “does not make our state safer, it does not make our roads safer, it just sends a message that Wyoming is anti-immigrant,” Serrano said.
That comment angered Sen. John Kolb, R-Rock Springs, whose wife is a naturalized citizen. Wyoming isn’t “anti-immigrant,” Kolb said. “To be clear, Wyoming is anti-illegal immigrant.” He asked Serrano if he drew a distinction between people who come into the country illegally and those who followed immigration channels.
“What I see is there is a lot of context that is not talked about,” Serrano said. “There are so many people here who have overstayed visas, which is not the same as crossing the border.”
And for those crossing the border illegally, Serrano sees it more often as an act of desperation than shortcutting. “I know what it’s like to struggle to put food on my table,” Serrano said, “so I don’t judge other people for making a decision they have to make to survive.”
Serrano also told Kolb the senator should not attempt to dictate to Wyoming’s immigrants how they should interpret the current debate. Kolb can say this year’s suite of legislation isn’t “anti-immigrant” if he wants to, Serrano said, “but that’s how we perceive them.”
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