DREAMers Sue To Stop Michigan From Denying Driver’s Licenses

By Elise Foley, Huffington Post Latino Voices

WASHINGTON — Civil rights groups sued Michigan Secretary Of State Ruth Johnson (R) on Wednesday for blocking driver’s licenses for undocumented young people given deportation relief by the president. Denying the group licenses makes many unable to use their newly-granted work authorization, attend school or simply get around.

The American Civil Liberties Union and National Immigration Law Center filed the Michigan suit on behalf of three undocumented young people and a youth immigrant group, One Michigan.

Receiving driver’s licenses is a significant issue to the estimated 1.76 million young undocumented immigrants — often called Dreamers — in Michigan who may be eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Although there are no breakdowns for how many young people in Michigan have been granted deferred action, 102,965 people were approved nationwide as of Dec. 13.

The two-year deferred action means that in most states, those undocumented immigrants can apply for driver’s licenses.

But Michigan, Arizona and Nebraska governments have refused to grant licenses to Dreamers who have been granted deportation reprieve.

“They’re really unable to work and to use benefits of that status because they can’t drive,” said Karen Tumlin, an attorney for the National Immigration Law Center. “Michigan winter is not exactly where you’d want to walk to work.”

In Arizona, the decision seemed partially political. Gov. Jan Brewer (R), an immigration hardliner, announced in August that the state would deny driver’s licenses to deferred action recipients. The civil rights groups filed a complaint in Arizona in November along the same grounds as the suit in Michigan.

Attorneys with the ACLU and the National Immigration Law Center said Michigan seems somewhat different — possibly just confused, rather than trying to thwart the policy for political reasons. Johnson, the secretary of state, told her staffers in November not to grant driver’s licenses to deferred action beneficiaries. Her spokeswoman, Gisgie Gendreau, told the Detroit Free Press at the time that they were not allowed, by law, to grant licenses.

“Michigan law requires legal presence, that someone be here legally,” Gendreau told the Free Press. 

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This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.

Elise Foley is a reporter for the Huffington Post in Washington, D.C. She previously worked at The Washington Independent.