Federal judge rejects state’s efforts to deny driver’s licenses to DACA enrollees

PHOENIX — A federal judge has swatted down efforts by the Ducey administration to deny licenses to some deferred action recipients even after a federal appeals court ruled that such a move was illegal for others.

In a sometimes sharply worded ruling, Judge David Campbell pointed out that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals told Arizona in no uncertain terms years ago that “dreamers’’ with certain Employment Authorization Documents are lawfully present in this country and cannot be denied licenses. Since then, the state has complied and those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program have been licensed.

Yet state officials have refused to provide licenses to others in different deferred action programs to whom the federal government issued the exact same employment documents, like domestic violence victims. And that, said Campbell, is illegal.

“The federal government makes no distinction,’’ the judge wrote.

In his new ruling, Campbell also said the record shows the state has been playing litigation games, changing its policies in an attempt at first to justify denying licenses to dreamers and, when that didn’t work, to deny licenses to other deferred action recipients.

Gubernatorial press aide Daniel Scarpinato said the governor and the state Department of Transportation, who have been using taxpayer dollars to hire a private attorney to defend the policy, will be reviewing the ruling before deciding how to respond and whether to appeal.

But Nicolas Espiritu, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, said it is a clear -- and crucial -- victory for potentially 1,000 people who the state has been arguing should not get a license to drive.

“These individuals will be able to go into MVDs throughout the state and present the same documents as all other individuals who are just like them, who have a document that proves their identity and proves their authorization to be in the country, and they’ll be able to get a driver’s license,’’ he said.

The case is a spinoff of the original lawsuit filed against the state after then-Gov. Jan Brewer directed ADOT not to issue licenses to those who were part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program enacted by the Obama administration. That program allows those who arrived in this country as children to remain without fear of deportation.