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Deferred Action Immigrants To Be Given Driver's Licenses In Iowa

Iowa To Give Driver's Licenses To Young Undocumented Immigrants
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By 

Copy Chief, HuffPost

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WASHINGTON -- The state of Iowa will now grant driver's licenses to young undocumented immigrants granted deferred action by the Obama administration, a reversal in the wake of new guidelines from the federal government to clarify whether immigrants allowed to stay in the country can be defined as "lawfully present."

Iowa was one of five states -- Arizona, Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska and North Carolina -- that banned deferred action recipients from receiving driver's licenses or took existing ones away. Two of those states, North Carolina and Michigan, confirmed to HuffPost on Wednesday they are reviewing their policies.

"The new information announced late last Friday from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services changes the definition of persons granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival status," Iowa Department of Transportations officials said in a statement on Wednesday.

The controversy over driver's licenses is based on legal jargon and -- according to some -- opposition to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program as a whole. But it has serious implications for young undocumented immigrants such as Constanza Villarroel, an 18-year-old high school senior in North Carolina who was granted deferred action last year. Villarroel wants a driver's license so she can join clubs and volunteer, she said, but was turned away from multiple Department of Motor Vehicles offices in the past week -- sometimes after waiting for hours. She is one of 154,404 young undocumented immigrants nationwide who have been granted deferred action since the program began last August.

Deferred action recipients are not in "lawful status" while they're staying in the U.S. -- they're still undocumented, and they could still be deported based on Department of Homeland Security discretion. Arizona, Michigan, Iowa and Nebraska announced last year that those immigrants therefore could not legally be granted driver's licenses because the law requires them to be legally present. North Carolina canceled already-issued driver's licenses for deferred action recipients earlier this month, citing the same reason. Civil rights groups have sued Arizona and Michigan for blocking driver's licenses.

But the Department of Homeland Security clarified the issue on Friday, if indirectly. Although driver's licenses or state laws are not mentioned, a new FAQ on the agency website defines recipients as "considered to be lawfully present in the United States" during the two-year period for the policy.

Fred Woodhams, a spokesman for the Michigan Secretary of State's office, said the state's existing policy is still in place, but that they are reviewing the information put out from USCIS.

North Carolina has another potential reason to reverse course. The state's Chief Deputy Attorney General Grayson Kelley sent a letter to the Department of Motor Vehicles there weighing in on the legality of driver's licenses for deferred action recipients. He wrote that "individuals who have been granted deferred action under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy directive are lawfully present in the United States during the period of deferment" -- meaning they could legally be given licenses.

The state is reviewing his letter, but a decision has not yet been made, Greer Beaty, communications director for the North Carolina Department of Transportation, told HuffPost in an email.

"It took four months for the Attorney General to offer his opinion; it will take the DMV a few days to review that opinion and all its potential implications," she wrote. "We will notify the public once our review is complete."

A spokesman for Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) did not respond to a request for comment on the state's policy on driver's licenses for deferred action recipients. Brewer issued an executive order last August -- on the day the government began accepting deferred action applications -- to ban the state from issuing driver's licenses to those impacted by the policy. That action was considered by many to be retribution against a policy that helps many undocumented immigrants, given Brewer's past history as a hardliner on the issue.

Arizona State Sen. Steve Gallardo, a Democrat, said he doesn't expect Brewer to want to begin giving driver's licenses to undocumented young people.

"She's never done anything in Arizona to be very pro-immigrant," he said.

UPDATE: Jan. 24, 1:45 p.m. -- Arizona is also reviewing its policy on driver's licenses after the new guidelines from the federal government, Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson confirmed to HuffPost on Thursday. There is no set time frame for the state to come to a decision, he said.

"Governor Brewer would like to get this issue resolved as quickly as possible, but the federal government took seven months to provide this type of guidance, so it's appropriate that the governor and her staff get time to look at it," he said.

Before You Go

10 Major U.S. Federal Immigration Laws
The Naturalization Act of 1790(01 of10)
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The Naturalization Act of 1790 was our country's first set of laws dealing with citizenship. Applicants had to be "a free white person" of "good moral character." This excluded indentured servants and slaves. Good moral character was substantiated by establishing residence for at least one year in the state from where he was applying, and at least two years of residence in the country. The Naturalization Act of 1795 would extend that requirement to five years, and is still standard today. (credit:Flickr)
The Fourteenth Amendment, 1868(02 of10)
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A Reconstruction Amendment that was added to the U.S. Constitution following the Civil War, the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment establishes for the first time that children born on U.S. soil would be conferred U.S. citizenship regardless of their parent's citizenship status, race, or place of birth. Last year, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) introduced the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011 to Congress, and challenged this. The bill would require that at least one parent be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident for a child to be granted citizenship. According to the bill's text, the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011 would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, and "clarify those classes of individuals born in the United States who are nationals and citizens of the United States at birth."Prior to this, Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA) introduced a similar bill in 2009. (credit:Getty)
The Naturalization Act of 1870(03 of10)
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The Naturalization Act of 1870 explicitly extended naturalization laws to "aliens of African nativity and persons of African descent." This meant that for the first time, African-American children would be conferred citizenship upon birth. Asian immigrants and other people of color are excluded per the Naturalization Acts of 1790 and 1795. (credit:Getty)
The Page Act of 1875(04 of10)
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Named after Republican Representative Horace F. Page, this is the first U.S. federal immigration law to explicitly prohibit the immigration of a particular group: persons of Asian descent. Primarily meant to limit Chinese immigrant labor and prostitution, the Page Act prohibited the immigration of: (1) contracted labor from "China, Japan, or any Oriental country" that was not "free and voluntary," (2) Chinese prostitution and (3) criminals and women who would engage in prostitution. Ultimately, the Page Act severely restricted the immigration of Asian women. Only 136 of the the nearly 40,000 Chinese immigrants who arrived in the months before the bill's enforcement were women. And, it would pave the way for the Chinese Exclusion Act.In this picture, Michael Lin, chair of the 1882 Project, a coalition of rights groups seeking a statement of regret over that year's Chinese Exclusion Act, speaks on May 26, 2011 in Washington, DC, at the US House of Representatives in front of a reproduction of a 19th-century sign that aimed at rousing up sentiment against Chinese Americans. Lawmakers introduced a bill that would offer an official statement of regret for the act, which banned further immigration of Chinese to the United States and ended citizenship rights for ethnic Chinese. (AFP PHOTO/SHAUN TANDON). (credit:Getty)
The Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882(05 of10)
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Signed by President Chester A. Arthur, the Chinese Exclusion Act was the first federal immigration law to prohibit immigration on the basis of race. The bill barred all Chinese laborers, skilled and unskilled, from immigrating to the U.S. for ten years. It was made permanent by 1903, and was not lifted until the 1943 Magnuson Act. The 1898 Supreme Court decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark finally extended naturalization laws to persons of Chinese descent by ruling that anyone born in the United States was indeed a U.S. citizen. This editorial cartoon from 1882 shows a Chinese man being excluded from entry to the "Golden Gate of Liberty." The sign next to the iron door reads, "Notice--Communist, Nihilist, Socialist, Fenian & Hoodlum welcome. But no admittance to Chinamen." At the bottom, the caption reads, "THE ONLY ONE BARRED OUT. Enlightened American Statesman--'We must draw the line somewhere, you know.'" (Image Source: Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper, vol. 54 (1882 April 1), p. 96. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons). (credit:Wikimedia Commons)
The Naturalization Act of 1906(06 of10)
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The Naturalization Act of 1906 further defined the naturalization process: the ability to speak English was made a requisite for immigrants to adjust their status. (credit:Flickr Creative Commons)
The Immigration Act of 1924(07 of10)
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U.S. President Coolidge signed this U.S. federal bill into law. It capped the number of immigrants who could be admitted entry to the U.S. and barred immigration of persons who were not eligible for naturalization. And, as the Naturalization Act of 1790 required, an immigrant had to be white in order to naturalize. The quotas varied by country. Image Source: Flickr Creative Commons, NYCMarines. (credit:Flickr Creative Commons)
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (The McCarran-Walter Act)(08 of10)
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The McCarran-Walter Act kept up the controversial Immigration Act of 1924, but formally ended Asian exclusion. (credit:Flickr Creative Commons)
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965(09 of10)
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When President Lyndon Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, it abolished the quota system that favored immigration from Europe and limited immigration from Asia and South America. (credit:Wikimedia Commons)
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996(10 of10)
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The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) is a piece of legislation that defined an array of issues to do with legal and illegal immigration -- from outlining how border patrol agents should administer visa processing, to the minutiae of how to handle deportation proceedings -- IIRIRA established enforcement and patrolling practices. (credit:AP)
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