Thread: Nebraska is the ‘last state standing’ DACA Drivers Licenses

Nebraska is the ‘last state standing’


Posted: Friday, July 11, 2014 8:10 pm


by Kevin Zelaya Lexington Clipper-Herald | 0 comments


Nebraska is the only state in the country that does not let undocumented immigrant youths who have obtained deferred action status to receive a driver’s license.


Nebraska finds itself as the “last state standing” after a recent appeals court ruling blocked a similar policy in Arizona. Arizona had been the only other state that refused driver’s licenses for young immigrants shielded from deportation under a controversial program started two years ago by President Barack Obama.


The program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, provides a two-year window where an undocumented youth cannot be deported and is granted authorization to work. To qualify, youths must meet a list of requirements including having resided in the country since 2007, having arrived before turning 16 and having a record free of felony and significant misdemeanors.


Known as DACA, the policy was enacted through executive order by President Obama in 2012 and requires a renewal every two years.


Dairyn Argueta, a Lexington High School graduate, obtained deferred action status in October of 2012 shortly after the policy was enacted. She said the policy has allowed her to better herself.


“It has given me my dream of going to college and having a job. Before that I wasn’t really thinking about college, I couldn’t get a job,” Argueta said.


Even though she wasn’t able to obtain a driver’s license, Argueta said she still had to get to work meaning driving was a necessity.


“I still have to drive, I still have that fear that am I going to get pulled over and they’ll see I don’t have a driver’s license,” she said.


Argueta said she has a young cousin who is in the process of applying for the deferred action status. “He is younger, he doesn’t have to worry about not being able to get a job,” she said. “This policy has given us the dream that other students take for granted.”


Father Neal Nollette of St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Lexington said he personally knows young people who have obtained deferred status and are working but are forced to drive without a driver’s license.


“It’s impractical, it doesn’t make any sense. People are going to do it anyway, what good is it to have them driving without a driver’s license?” Nollette said.


For most people living in Nebraska, a car is a necessity for transportation, he continued. That’s particularly true in widespread areas and rural areas where work commutes often involve driving to another town, Nollette said.


Leticia Bonifas, a local volunteer who helps residents with immigration issues, said she has helped about 70 youths in the area obtain the deferred action status.


Kellie Draper works with St. Mary’s Immigration Program at St. Ann’s Parish Center in Lexington. “If approved, dreamers are given deferred status. This is used to describe people that are low priority for removal from the United States,” she said.


Draper has helped 50 Dreamer youths with deferred status applications.


“It does not give them any legal status and there is no pathway to legal residency or citizenship. They can renew their work authorization every two years until they are 31 years old,” Draper said.


Draper said it seems ridiculous that undocumented immigrants are granted work authorization or the chance to continued their education but cannot get a driver’s license to get to and from work or school.


The battle over licenses is being fought in the court system in Nebraska, as well. The ACLU brought a lawsuit on behalf of four immigrants in Nebraska who’ve been denied driving privileges.


The Nebraska policy means more than 2,400 people who have received two-year, renewable work permits are ineligible for driver’s licenses. The policy was announced in 2012 by Gov. Dave Heineman.


Heineman argued the driver’s license policy complies with a 2009 state law that bans public benefits to those not lawfully present in the United States. The president’s deportation deferral program does not make the young immigrants legal citizens, he said.


ACLU Nebraska Legal Director Amy Miller said the ruling by the appeals court in the Arizona case can’t be used to predict the outcome of the Nebraska case.


“While we’re excited for the news for the young dreamers in Arizona, the Nebraska court will have to come to its own conclusion,” Miller said. She used the term “dreamers” to refer to the category of immigrants often brought to the country illegally as children.


The ACLU’s primary claim is that the governor failed to follow the state’s procedures to change administrative rules, thus nullifying his policy. Prior to announcing his policy at a press conference, the state had issued driver’s licenses to some categories of non-citizens.


Miller said while some of the arguments in the Arizona case also could be made in Nebraska, the two states have different laws. Arizona also is in a different federal court district than Nebraska.


For more information on the deferred action for childhood arrivals policy visit http://www.dhs.gov/deferred-action-childhood-arrivals.


-The World-Herald News Service contributed to this report.

http://lexch.com/news/local/nebraska...aign=hootsuite

Dang, Nebraska I'm proud of you! Right call, governor!

Father Neal Nollette of St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Lexington said he personally knows young people who have obtained deferred status and are working but are forced to drive without a driver’s license.

Oh please give me a break. No one is forcing them to drive. This isn't that big of a town and you can walk or bike anywhere you want!

Arguments made in lawsuit over immigrant driver’s licenses

By - Associated Press - Thursday, April 30, 2015

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - A judge has heard arguments in a lawsuit brought by several young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children because Nebraska refuses to issue them driver’s licenses.

The Lincoln Journal Star says (http://bit.ly/1FAlzNv ) an attorney for the immigrants argued Wednesday that the Department of Motor Vehicles has been unlawfully denying licenses to immigrants authorized to live and work in Nebraska under a federal program.

But the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office defended the practice, saying that while those young immigrants might have a lawful presence, “they lack lawful status.”

Both sides rested Wednesday and agreed to submit closing arguments in writing within two weeks.

Nebraska is the only state in the nation that continues to deny licenses to youths who qualify for the Obama administration’s deferred-action policy.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/30/arguments-made-in-lawsuit-over-immigrant-drivers-l/#ixzz3YoxePFlm

Originally Posted by Mayday

Oh please give me a break. No one is forcing them to drive. This isn't that big of a town and you can walk or bike anywhere you want!

The irony of course is giving someone who isn't supposed to be in the US a work permit and driver's license. What kind of message is that?! WELCOME, WE'VE GOT YOUR BACKS. That's what it says, and of course, that's what it means, when the only thing these people "need" is to leave our country, not drive to work.

On a recent morning, inside the Eastern Indoor Swapmeet Las Vegas, a group funded by the billionaire Koch brothers helped 250 Latinos — some of them illegal immigrants — pass the Nevada driver’s test.

In addition to driver’s license classes, LIBRE has started offering Latinos tax preparation help, wellness checkups, scholarships and food giveaways in Texas, Colorado, Florida and other states. It has bought ads touting the “free market,” smaller government and school choice, and its officials are a growing presence on Spanish-language news stations talking about the virtues of “self-reliance.” . . .


http://www.alipac.us/f9/billionaire-...ocrats-319150/
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Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals - National Conference of State ...
www.ncsl.org/research/immigration/deferred-action.aspx
Apr 25, 2018 - 9, 2018, a U.S. district judge ordered that DACA recipients be allowed to continue ... The judge stayed his decision for 90 days to give DHS the opportunity to better ... All states now issue driver's licenses to DACA recipients...