Video spreads misinformation about immigrants illegally in the US getting driver's licenses to vote

A video shared across social media showed what it said were hundreds of Somalis illegally in the U.S. lined up to get driver’s licenses in south Florida.

"BREAKING! 100s of illegal migrants in line to get drivers licenses???" read a screengrab of an X post that overlaid the video on Instagram. "Isn’t that all you need to be able to vote? 1955 N Federal Hwy, Pompano Beach, FL."

In a voice-over on the video, a man said he’d obtained the video from a friend who was taking her nephew to get his driver’s license in Pompano Beach and was told to return at 6 a.m. only to find this scene. "She said most were Somali illegal immigrants," the narrator said.

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The video came from David J. Harris Jr., a conservative commentator, who shared the claim Aug. 2 on his X and TikTok accounts. The voice-over appears to be his —  in a subsequent X post, Harris identified his friend as "Michele" and said that the address in the video, which he said Michele gave him, was inaccurate.

"She showed up at 6 in the morning to this," the narrator said, showing a video of Black people waiting in line at a driver’s license office. "Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? She said most were Somali illegal immigrants, a whole lot of military-age men there. And listen they don’t want anybody to film them. They don’t want the public to see this. And all you need to vote is a driver’s license. Kamala (Harris) let these people in." 

The video is full of misinformation. First, the video was not from a DMV in Pompano Beach (in a subsequent post David J. Harris Jr. said he had posted the wrong address and that the video was from a different location, an address in Lauderdale Lakes near Fort Lauderdale.)

But the video’s main point  — that immigrants in the U.S. illegally are getting driver’s licenses and therefore can vote — is wrong. Harris’ post drew responses from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spokespeople Bryan Griffin and Christina Pushaw, who sought to debunk its claims.

Florida doesn’t issue driver’s licenses to immigrants in the U.S. illegally, unlike some states. And people must be U.S. citizens to vote in federal elections. A small number of Democratic-led cities let certain noncitizens vote in municipal elections, but cities in Florida are not among them. Nothing in the video proved that the people in line were Somalis or immigrants illegally in the U.S.

Harris’ video and his tweet directed viewers to his online store that sells merchandise promoting former President Donald Trump’s campaign.

We contacted Harris to ask for his evidence and received no reply.

Pushaw wrote in an X thread that the video originated from a July 25 WPLG-TV news report about long lines at local DMV offices. The report’s footage didn’t match the video  in Harris’ X post exactly, but it was filmed at the same location. The news report quoted people in line who said they arrived early in the morning and waited for hours to get a driver’s license. The TV report, set in Lauderdale Lakes — a city near Pompano Beach — showed the line of people wrapped around the building’s exterior. It didn’t mention immigrants.

"For those who don't know, Florida is a diverse state, and we have American citizens of all races," Pushaw wrote. "The people waiting for driver licenses & IDs in the video are black AMERICANS. Not Somalians or any type of illegal aliens!"

There are few Somali immigrants in Florida. Statewide as of 2022, there were about 6,000 people in Florida out of a total population of about 22 million who were foreign-born and spoke Amharic, Somali or other Afro-Asiatic Language, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan source of immigration data.

"Thanks to laws signed by @GovRonDeSantis, Florida BANS illegal aliens from getting driver licenses and does NOT recognize licenses issued in other states to illegals," Pushaw wrote. 

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In 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1718, which prohibits people from operating a motor vehicle if their driver’s license comes from another state that provides licenses to immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

On Aug. 5, PolitiFact went to the Pompano Beach address listed in the video and saw that it is not the location in the video. We found the DMV office on the second story in the mall’s rear. Several dozen people were waiting in line — mostly on an outdoor staircase in 90-degree Fahrenheit weather.

"It’s just horrible, the one word to describe it is ‘horrible," said David Thompson, a resident of Boca Raton said about having to stand in line to renew his driver’s license.

We also visited the DMV location in Lauderdale Lakes on Oakland Boulevard, which was a match for the location in Harris’ video.

A Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles spokesperson Molly Best said people must provide proof of legal presence to receive credentials from the agency.

"Lines in Fort Lauderdale and Miami area offices are the busiest in the state, with the highest number of visitors each day," Best said. "The department is hiring more examiners to assist and address processing customer requests."

Immigrants in Florida with certain documentation such as a green card can get a driver’s license.

Some conservative politicians and some social media influencers, including billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who owns X, have amplified unfounded election-year claims that noncitizen voting is widespread or done at Democrats’ behest.

In 1996, Congress banned noncitizen voting in federal elections as part of an effort to toughen penalties for people in the country illegally.

The Broward Supervisor of Elections office told PolitiFact that it had received no evidence that immigrants in Broward are illegally trying to register to vote.

"You must be a U.S. citizen in order to vote," said Joe Scott, the elections supervisor in Broward County, which includes Pompano Beach and Lauderdale Lakes. "Having a Florida driver's license does not make you a U.S. Citizen."

Think tanks, academics, courts and journalists have analyzed claims about noncitizen voting for years and have found only sporadic cases that wouldn’t swing federal elections.

A video shared on social media claimed to show Somali immigrants in line to get driver’s licenses in Pompano Beach, Florida, and said, "All you need to vote is a driver's license."

The video footage was filmed in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, and captured scenes of long wait times at the DMV, which had been the subject of a local news report from the same location. There is no evidence the people pictured were immigrants in the country illegally, or from Somalia.

Florida law prohibits immigrants in the U.S. illegally from getting driver’s licenses. And to vote, people must have U.S. citizenship.

We rate this statement False.

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