Arizona must continue to give driver’s licenses to young immigrants protected from deportation by President Obama, a federal judge has ruled, delivering a defeat to former governor Jan Brewer.
Judge David Campbell on Thursday issued a permanent injunction that allowed for young immigrants to keep their licenses and receive new ones from the state. Overturning the former governor’s ban, he wrote that “the denial of driver’s licenses has caused plaintiffs irreparable harm”.
In doing so, Campbell underlined the president’s authority on deferred deportations and ordered Arizona to accept documents issued under the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program.
Brewer, a Republican who left office this month, had considered Obama’s executive action on deferring deportation to be illegal; she countered in August 2012 with her own executive order to ban driving licenses for immigrants. However, the US supreme court in December allowed a lower court’s stay of the ban and a few days before Christmas, Arizona issued its first licenses to “Dreamers”, as the immigrants in question are called.
Campbell’s decision sided firmly with the plaintiffs arguing against the ban. They argued that without a driver’s license, simple tasks such as going to work, attending school and buying groceries were made complicated almost to the point of impossibility. The judge agreed, writing that Dreamers “have been unable to pursue new jobs or develop business opportunities because of their inability to drive”.
Brewer was succeeded as governor on 5 January by another Republican, Doug Doucey. His office said he would review whether to appeal the ruling.
With Campbell’s ruling, only Nebraska still refuses to grant driver’s licenses to the people protected by Daca. As in Arizona, a former Republican governor issued the ban and his successor and a staunchly conservative state government support it. But elements as disparate as the Nebraska Restaurant Association and the Nebraska Cattleman Association have joined with immigrants’ rights groups in calling for its repeal. Each group argues that the ban only hampers business.
A handful of other states have moved in the other direction, including Colorado, Illinois and Nevada, by granting licenses to undocumented immigrants. California made major steps in December to prepare for issuing licenses to tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants, increasing DMV staff and marking new licenses to distinguish them from those for US citizens and residents.
California’s return to granting licenses to undocumented immigrants restores a policy held for decades before 1993, when the state passed an anti-immigration law that required applicants for licenses show a social security number.
In November, Obama introduced new orders to relax rules about immigration, deferring deportation for as many as five million undocumented people. Daca applies applies to people who arrived in the US before turning 16, have been in the country for at least five continuous years, and either served in the military or are enrolled in or have graduated from high school.
