The state of Arizona
has retained a former immigration official as an expert in a bid to deny driver’s
licenses to ‘dreamers’ eligible for the deferred action program. That program
allows children who came to the country illegally to stay in the United States
and to work here. But, Governor Brewer has refused to issue them driver’s
licenses, citing a 1996 Arizona
law requiring applicants to prove their presence in the country is authorized
by federal law. Some DACA recipients sued. Robert Brown, a former immigration
official, says deferred action is not authorization. The governor’s spokesman
matt Benson says that backs up his boss’s decision.
“What sets the DACA program apart is it was never approved
by Congress,” Brown said. “This deferred action program is not enshrined in
federal law. That’s why this program different than the one given to domestic
violence victims and political refugees and all the rest.”
U.S. District Judge David Campbell has suggested the
challengers could win the suit on equal protection grounds, if they can show
those in the DACA program are legally identical to people in other programs who
have been licensed.
