'Dreamers' ask Supreme Court to reject Arizona move to take away driver's licenses

PHOENIX — Advocates for “Dreamers” are urging the nation’s high court to reject Arizona’s last-ditch bid to take away their licenses to drive.

In new legal briefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, attorneys for various groups are asking the justices to leave undisturbed an appellate court ruling that concluded the state acted illegally in refusing to issue licenses to those accepted into the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said DACA recipients are in this country legally. The judges said Arizona has no right to unilaterally decide the issue of legal presence for itself.

But attorneys for the “Dreamers,” led by Jennifer Chang Newell of the American Civil Liberties Union, also have a political argument in their bid to convince the Supreme Court not to reviewing the issue at the behest of state Attorney General Mark Brnovich.

“The new administration has maintained the program, and continues to grant renewals of deferred action pursuant to DACA,” the legal papers state, even though Trump has the unilateral authority to alter or rescind the policy just as his predecessor enacted it.

And Congress has not taken any action to strip the president of the power to offer deferred action.

“Indeed, Congress ... had rejected legislation that would have temporarily suspended Department of Homeland Security’s authority to grant deferred action except in narrow circumstances, demonstrating it knows how it could limit deferred action, but has chosen not to do so,” the “Dreamers’” attorneys said.

“Congress also has considered bills that would bar implementation of DACA; block agency funding unless the program were rescinded; or limited the (Homeland Security) secretary’s authority to grant DACA recipients to work authorization — but enacted none of them,” the legal filings continue. “Meanwhile, Congress has enacted multiple appropriations bills that fund DHS, leaving DACA untouched.”

The 2012 policy allows those who arrived in this country illegally as children to remain if they meet certain other qualifications. They also are entitled to employment authorization documents entitling them to work here legally.

At last count, more than 27,000 Arizonans had been granted DACA status.

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But just days before the Department of Homeland Security began taking applications, then-Gov. Jan Brewer issued an executive order directing the Arizona Department of Transportation to not issue licenses to DACA recipients. She cited a 1996 state law that says licenses are available only to those whose presence in this country is “authorized by federal law.”

Brewer argued the federal agency had no legal authority to permit DACA recipients to remain or work. And what that meant, she said, is they were not “authorized” to be here.

That argument failed to convince federal appellate judges who, ruling for the ACLU, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the National Immigration Law Center, said Arizona cannot decide for itself who is legally entitled to be in the country.

The state Department of Transportation, acting under federal court order, said its most recent statistics show that more than 21,000 DACA recipients have been granted Arizona licenses.

Brnovich, with the Supreme Court left as his last chance for legal relief, is arguing that what Obama did is not part of any federal law or even the result of Congress directing a federal agency to adopt a rule. And inherent in that argument is the contention that Obama exceeded his authority in establishing the DACA program in the first place.

The attorneys for the “Dreamers,” however, point out it’s not like Obama was doing something new.

“For more than four decades, federal immigration authorities have granted deferred action to otherwise removable noncitizens in a variety of circumstances,” they said. That ranges from victims of human trafficking and relatives of victims of terrorism to even foreign students affected by Hurricane Katrina.

They noted that along with that status comes employment authorization documents to ensure that person can work while here — the very documents the state is refusing to honor for licenses for DACA recipients. The lawyers for the “Dreamers” say there’s no legal basis for Brnovich’s claim that Obama acted illegally.

“Indeed, no court has found DACA to be unlawful, and every legal challenge has been dismissed,” they said.