Arizona hoped an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court would prevent the state from having to grant driving permits to young undocumented immigrants, also known as "dreamers," who entered the country as children. A federal appeals court ruled in July of this year Arizona must start issuing the licenses to dreamers, who under Obama administration policy are permitted to remain in the United States.
NPR's Nina Totenberg reported on the Supreme Court's Wednesday decision and the background of the legal dispute:
The court's decision, she says, ultimately did not rule in the state's favor.
The state has been fighting for more than two years to deny the licenses, beginning with an executive order by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer in August 2012. The Arizona Republic published a timeline of the state's legal actions surrounding the issue, showing Brewer issued the order on the same day President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program took effect. The program allows those undocumented immigrants to stay in the U.S. for 2 years in order to apply for immunity.
The Tucson Sentinel reported in November that a three-judge federal panel ruled the state's actions to deny licenses to dreamers was illegal and in violation of the president's deferred action program.
The Supreme Court's refusal to intervene clears the way for as many as 22,000 dreamers in Arizona to obtain legal permits to drive.
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