Rules mean special licenses for many

Immigration reform means legal residents who are not U.S. citizens will get driver's licenses or state identification cards marked as "temporary.”

Habitual and aggravated sex offenders, meanwhile, will be issued driver's licenses identifying them as such.

Legal residents who are not United States citizens will be issued driver's licenses or identification cards marked as "temporary,” Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper Betsy Randolph said.

The documents will be valid for four years, or the length of a person's visa, whichever is shorter.

First-time applicants, new residents, those seeking license upgrades and those with expired licenses will have to present proof of legal residence, she said.

The change is part of Oklahoma's tough new immigration enforcement law.

Randolph said officials are concerned misperceptions about the law will dissuade immigrants from seeking licenses and identification.

"I think people are in fear of coming in to see us because they think if they don't have the right paperwork or the right stuff that we're going to have an immigration officer here to handcuff them and take them away,” she said.

"We're not going to do that. ...

"We're not going to deport them when they come in to talk to us. We just want to get them licensed if we can.”