Judge: BMV must give licenses to immigrants

Ruling means 3,000 teens of refugees can get licenses, IDs.

A federal judge struck down Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles policies related to immigrants and refugees, which means that more than 4,000 people, mostly teenagers with immigrant parents, can obtain driver’s licenses and state IDs, attorneys suing the state said.

U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus Jr.’s opinions, released released last week and Tuesday, pertain to policies imposed on the children of people suspected of entering the U.S. illegally, as well as refugees. Advocates for Basic Legal Equality attorney Emily Brown said the organization estimates the ruling will impact more than 3,000 16 and 17 year olds, and about 1,000 refugees in Ohio.

“The plaintiffs in this case were indeed very brave,” Brown said of the teenagers. “Obviously there has been a chilling effect in the current political climate, when people who are undocumented or have family who are put themselves forward to assert their rights.”

The Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center in Cincinnati filed suit in 2018 and said a BMV policy discriminated because it required a parent or guardian to prove their lawful immigration status to co-sign for a teenager seeking a learner’s permit and later a driver’s license. Most of the teens at issue were born in the U.S. and are citizens.

The Columbus-based Community Refugee and Immigration Services also sued and said the BMV unlawfully refused to accept certain documentation from refugees to obtain a driver’s license or state ID, if the refugee had been in the U.S. longer than two years and not yet obtained a green card.

Sargus ruled that both policies were unconstitutional, shutting down the BMV’s legal arguments. Among them was that the BMV sought to comply with the federal REAL ID Act, which imposed nationwide standards for security measures pertaining to driver’s licenses and state IDs.

The judge also granted class-action status in both cases, which means the lawyers can seek relief among those not named in the lawsuit. The decisions were greeted with praise by advocates, who saw the BMV’s policies as a way to discriminate against immigrants and their families.

“This will have a huge impact for young people and their families,” Allison Reynolds-Berry, executive director of the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center, said of the teenagers. “Many of these . people might be the only licensed drivers in their families.”

Community Refugee and Immigration Services Executive director Angela Plummer said in a statement that “all refugees should be able to obtain driver’s licenses and state IDs so they can fully participate in their new community.”

A spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, which represented the BMV, said attorneys are reviewing the lawsuit.

Brown and the legal team she worked with found clients from all over the state for their lawsuits.

The teens who sued, only identified by their initials, came from Toledo, Cincinnati and Columbus. The refugees included one who lived in Cleveland and another from Columbus, with both hailing from Sudan.