ImmigrationArizona denies driver licenses to those eligible for DHS deferred action program

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other civil rights groups have filed a lawsuit to overturn Arizona governor Jan Brewer’s order to deny driver licenses to illegal immigrants who qualify for the federal governments “deferred action” program.

Attorneys say the Obama administration “authorized” immigrants who qualify for the program to be in this country, and that eligible citizens are being issued permits in order legally to work in the United States.

The attorneys also say that Arizona’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) issues driver licenses to others who have been granted “deferred action” under other federal programs. They say that Brewer does not have the power to decide that people in the Deferred Action Childhood Arrival (DCDA) program are different.

The East Valley Tribune reports that Brewer contends that although DHS is not deporting the 1.4 million people eligible for the program, this does not mean they are in the country legally. Brewer also mentioned that a 1996 Arizona law specifically requires proof that a person’s presence in the U.S.“is authorized under federal law.”

The ACLU hopes that U.S. District Court Judge David Campbell rules that Brewer’s order and any policies to implement it “are an impermissible state regulation” of immigration.

“It directly conflicts with federal immigration law because the federal government has authorized these young immigrants to live and work in this country,” Jennifer Chang Newell, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union told the East Valley Tribune. “And they’re therefore eligible for drivers’ licenses in Arizona.”

Alessandra Soler, Arizona’s ACLU director, said it is wrong to deny licenses to the 80,000 Arizonians that could qualify for the deferred action childhood arrival.

“This is a necessity for these folks who have been granted the right to live and work here,” Soler told the Tribune. “They cannot drive to school, they cannot drive to work,” Soler continued. “As a policy matter it just makes no sense, it’s counterproductive.”

DHS announced the deferred action plan in June, and it went into effect in August. The executive order implements  the DREAM Act, which stalled on the Hill. The word “dream” is an acronym for Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act, proposed federal legislation to provide a path to citizenship for those brought to the United States as minors.

The program will defer deportation for two years to immigrants between the ages of sixteen and thirty, who have lived in the United States for at least five years, have no serious criminal history, are currently in school or have graduated from high school or have obtained a general equivalency diploma. Honorably discharged veterans are also eligible.

According to DHS, more than 300,000 applications have been accepted nationwide. DHS says that they have received 11,000 requests from citizens living in Arizona, but they have not said how many people have been granted deferred status.

Newell told the Tribune that the federal policy does no say that states must grant drivers’ licenses to citizens who qualify, “But that doesn’t mean that the state is allowed to make a decision for itself that people that the federal government has given permission to reside in this country are, in fact, ‘unauthorized.’”

According to Peter Boogaard, a spokesman for DHS, the agency’s decision to deport some people does not actually “authorize” them to be in the U.S. and that the federal government does not consider immigrants that have been accepted for the program in the country illegally.

Capital Media Services has Arizona DMV records showing more than 68,000 instances since 2005 where the DMV issued a driver’s license or state ID card to someone with a federal “employment authorization card.”

DMV spokesman Tim Tait said the licenses are issued temporarily and have to be renewed, which could mean the 68,000 figure could be inflated due to duplicates.

Dulce Matuz, who is eligible for the program did not hold her feelings back. “Brewer needs to stop singling out ‘dreamers’ and stop treating us differently,” Dulce, who also is the president of the Arizona DREAM Act Coalition, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit told the Tribune. “Our oppressors will not give us our freedom willingly.” Nebraska and Michigan have also adopted policies designed to deny licenses to people in the program, but lawsuits have not been filed in those states.

Nicholas Espiritu, an attorney with the Mexican Legal Defense and Educational Fund agrees with the governor that the deferred action policy “is not the ultimate solution.”

“Instead, we need a permanent, humane solution that allows for full, not partial, not temporary, and not second-class status for these individuals,” Espiritu told the Tribune.