Thousands of illegal immigrants are signing up to be fingerprinted and provide tax returns to obtain new “driving privilege cards,” which were approved by the state legislature last June.

Since the state began issuing the cards last December, more than 4,600 illegal immigrants have submitted applications for driving privileges, which requires fingerprints submitted to the State Bureau of Identification, two years of Delaware tax returns and valid identification from their home country, the Associated Press reports.

“It’s really difficult to not have a car,” an unidentified illegal immigrant from Guatemala told WBOC. “Especially for those with a family. For example, if there was an accident at some time in the middle of the night, like if there was a family emergency, we can now get in the car and go.”

The man, immigrated illegally to Georgetown a decade ago, said “it makes it easier to get around, whether it’s a meeting, to go shopping, or most importantly to go to work.

“It makes us feel more calm that we don’t have to fear that we’ll pass and get caught by police.”

The driving privilege cards cannot be used for any purpose other than for driving, and applicants must pass the same testing and insurance requirements as legal state residents. The cards are the brainchild of a special legislative task force assembled in 2014 that included lawmakers, as well as representatives from the governor’s office, the DMV, Delaware Police Chiefs’ Council and the Mid-Atlantic Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, according to a Wilmington News Journal report in December.

Claudia Vena Porreti, VP of the Latin American Community Center in Wilmington told the news site she believes there’s close to 40,000 illegal immigrants in Delaware, though a Pew Research Center study in 2014 pegged the number at 20,000 in 2012.

Porreti, who worked with the task force, said she believes the driving privilege cards will make the state’s roadways safer because the illegal immigrants who obtain them must first pass a road test and meet other qualifications.

“The issue is there are thousands of people that are here without legal status, and safety is first,” she said.

Some state lawmakers, like Democrat Sen. Robert Marshall, believed that including a fingerprint requirement could deter many illegals from seeking the cards, but that obviously doesn’t seem to be the case.

The News Journal reports that “the state is prohibited from sharing fingerprints with federal authorities as long as those prints do not match ones found in an outstanding state crime database, according to the law.”

“Fingerprint background checks are necessary in order to mitigate the risk that a criminal or other bad actor would exploit the (process),” said Andrew Meehan, policy director for Keeping Identities Save, a Washington, D.C. organization that advocates for tightened identification standards. “The proposal that passed is likely the best as far as mitigating fraud vulnerabilities.”

The driving privilege cards cost $20, and the required fingerprint check by the Delaware State Bureau of Identification costs an additional $52.50. The cards, stamped with “driving privilege only, not valid for identification,” are valid for four years, according to the news site.