The State of Arizona has filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in an effort to allow the State to refuse to issue licenses to DREAMERs.
In the State’s request, attorneys argue that while Arizona issues licenses to some individuals who are granted “deferred action,” such as women who have been vicitms of domestic violence and their children, as provided for in the Naturalization Act, the Act does not expressly provide for deferred action for DREAMERs.
“They are the product of a discretionary policy action that the president had no authority to take,” argued the State’s Attorney General’s Office.
In January, U.S. District Court Judge David G. Campbell ruled against Arizona finding that it was prohibited from withholding driver’s licenses and other state-issued identification from young migrants who have been granted permission to live and work in the U.S. under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Campbell made permanent his December order temporarily enjoining Arizona from enforcing its ban on driver’s licenses. Former Arizona governor Jan Brewer instituted the ban in 2012.
Arizona is essentially arguing that the Obama administration had no legal authority to permit DREAMERs ACA recipients to stay and work, an argument that Campbell has already rejected.
The federal program announced in 2012 allows those who came here illegally as children to remain if they meet other conditions. The so-called dreamers, named for the earlier DREAM Act legislation that never passed Congress, also are issued Employment Authorization Documents entitling them to work here legally, the same documents issued to those in other deferred action programs.