Thread: State sued over denying driver's licenses to illegal immigrants-Nebraska

State sued over denying driver's licenses to illegal immigrants

UPDATED 3:22 PM CDT Jun 04, 2013

OMAHA, Neb. —The state of Nebraska is facing a federal lawsuit for denying driver's licenses to young illegal immigrants.

• READ THE LAWSUIT - PDF
  
  

The case against the Department of Motor Vehicles was filed by a 24-year-old college student named Mayra Saldana on Friday.
The feds granted her deferred action last year, which means she can legally live and work in the United States without the worry of deportation.
She and others like her said thanks to Gov. Dave Heineman, DMV offices are denying them permits and licenses, which violates the United States Constitution.
-- Read the lawsuit
Saldana has employment authorization and a Social Security number, but she doesn't have a driver's license.
Like Saldana, Fatima Flores is one of the estimated 1,400 people in Nebraska who received deferred action from the federal government in the past 11 months.
Flores, who works as a bank teller and will soon graduate college, says she just wants to drive and the state has no business holding her back.
Nebraska and Arizona are the only states that deny young illegal immigrants driver's licenses.
Six months ago, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services clarified that individuals granted deferred action are "lawfully present" in the United States. At the same time, the agency said those individuals do not have "lawful status" in the country.
"I understand the whole balance of powers and how each state works as their own little government, but I don't know why in Nebraska they can't just allow that. It makes no sense to me," Flores said.

• READ THE LAWSUIT - PDF
  
  

Flores' attorney, Bassel El-Kasaby, is not only fighting for her, he's serving as an expert witness in Saldana's case, saying the state is crossing a legal line.
"They want to take a stand on the issue and get into the business of interpreting federal immigration law, which is really clearly not their business," El-Kasaby said.
The attorneys handling the Saldana case said Nebraska is crossing its own line since the state has had a longstanding policy of issuing driver's licenses to people who have been granted deferred action.
They question why Saldana and Flores are any different.
"It's something that everybody deserves, I believe," Flores said.
In a statement to KETV NewsWatch 7 on Tuesday,Shannon L. Kingery, spokeswoman for Attorney General Jon Bruning, said, “Our office was served today. Our response is due on June 25, 2013. The Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles is our client and we will defend the lawsuit.”
Heineman, who has repeatedly said he would not allow any illegal immigrants to get a license, did not comment on the case.

http://www.ketv.com/news/local-news/...z/-/index.html

LINCOLN, Neb. (CN) - Nebraska unconstitutionally denies driver's licenses to people legally in the United States under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, a young woman claims in Federal Court.

Mayra Saldana, 24, has lived in Nebraska since her parents brought her here when she was 2, she says in the complaint. She is a sophomore at Peru State College, studying science, and also works.

She qualifies for relief under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and "has been granted deferred action pursuant to the DACA program, and has employment authorization and a Social Security Number," according to the complaint.

It continues: "As of March 31st, 2013, USCIS had granted 268,361 youth DACA benefits and 1,405 DACA recipients reside in Nebraska.

"All DACA grantees in Nebraska are being denied the opportunity to obtain a driver's license pursuant to Defendants' unlawful policies and practices.

"On August 17th, 2012 - two days after DHS began accepting DACA applications - Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman issued a press release, which stated: 'President Obama's deferred action program to issue employment authorization documents to illegal immigrants does not make them legal citizens. The State of Nebraska will continue its practice of not issuing driver's licenses, welfare benefits or other public benefits to illegal immigrants unless specifically authorized by Nebraska statute.'"

Saldana claims this violates the Supremacy Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

"The disagreement with the federal government's decision to enact the DACA program is further illustrated by Governor Heineman's language in a reply letter to plaintiff Mayra Saldana: 'we welcome legal immigration. Policies that reward illegal behavior are not fair to those individuals that do follow the rules. The United States Constitution squarely places the responsibility for establishing immigration laws on the federal government.'

"The Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles ('DMV') has treated Governor Heineman's statements as a directive to deny driver's licenses to DACA recipients," the complaint states.

"Consequently, the DMV enacted an official policy and implemented it on September 6th, 2012, barring the acceptance of the employment authorization documents from DACA recipients as evidence of authorized presence in the United States to establish eligibility for driver's licenses.

"The DMV, however, continues to accept employment authorization documents from all other noncitizens, including noncitizens who are recipients of deferred action other than DACA recipients."

Saldana has a job now but "was previously denied a job opportunity since it required some driving. She was told outright that the reason she was not considered was because she did not have a driver's license," according to the complaint.

She seeks declaratory judgment and an injunction.

She is represented by Aaron Siebert-Llera with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, in Chicago.

Named as defendants are the Nebraska DMV and its Director Rhonda Lahm.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/06/03/58133.htm

June 5, 2013
Judicial Watch

Emboldened by President Obama’s amnesty venture and no doubt the nation’s robust open borders movement, an illegal immigrant is suing the state she lives in for “unconstitutionally” denying her a driver’s license.

This seems to indicate that a new, bolder, more confident and demanding class of illegal alien has surfaced in the United States. Not that we haven’t seen illegal immigrants sue various U.S. agencies—at the federal, state, county and city level—over the years for violations of “constitutional rights,” but this is really brazen.

The story comes out of Nebraska, where a 24-year-old illegal alien insists she has the right, under the United States Constitution, to drive. Therefore, her lawsuit claims, she can force the state to grant her an official driver’s license. Here’s why, according to the complaint, which was filed by the notoriously leftist Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) on the woman’s behalf; she qualifies for Obama’s special Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and that means she has permission from Uncle Sam to be in the U.S.

Under DACA, illegal immigrants under the age of 30 who came to the U.S. as children (“through no fault of their own,” as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano loves to say) can remain in the country and obtain work permits. President Obama sidestepped Congress and created it in June via executive order. This ignited a movement among open borders forces to grant the newly protected illegal aliens rights, including the right to obtain a driver’s license.

In Arizona, Governor Jan Brewer shot back by issuing an order banning illegal immigrants—including those newly protected by the Obama amnesty—from obtaining driver’s licenses or other taxpayer-funded benefits in the state. That measure was also legally challenged by immigrant rights groups, including MALDEF, but last month a federal court ruled in favor of Brewer’s order.

In the Nebraska case Mayra Saldana asserts the state “unconstitutionally” denies driver’s licenses to people “legally” in the United States under Obama’s youth amnesty. Saldana came to the U.S. with her illegal immigrant parents as a toddler and is a sophomore at Peru State College. She also works because DACA comes with employment authorization for the hundreds of thousands it has spared from deportation. “All DACA grantees in Nebraska are being denied the opportunity to obtain a driver’s license pursuant to Defendants’ unlawful policies and practices,” according to Saldana’s complaint.

Nebraska’s Governor Dave Heineman, is not budging though now he will be forced to spend taxpayer dollars defending the state against the lawsuit. In a statement issued shortly after Obama enacted DACA, Heineman said: “President Obama’s deferred action program to issue employment authorization documents to illegal immigrants does not make them legal citizens. The State of Nebraska will continue its practice of not issuing driver’s licenses, welfare benefits or other public benefits to illegal immigrants unless specifically authorized by Nebraska statute.”

DACA has also caused havoc in other states. In California’s largest public school district it created a costly, “bureaucratic nightmare” because applicants rushed to obtain records to prove they have lived in the U.S. continuously since 2007 as required by the measure. In the case of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), hundreds of thousands of current and former students are eligible for Obama’s special amnesty program and they’ve flooded schools throughout the sprawling district to get documents. Last fall the cash-strapped district reported that it had spent at least $200,000 to retrieve the records.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/20...alien-license/