New practice in Indiana: No professional licenses for DACA recipients

Young immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children but granted legal work status, often called Dreamers, are being shut out of scores of professions in Indiana under a new practice implemented by the administration of Gov. Eric Holcomb.

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The Indiana Professional Licensing Agency recently added new questions about citizenship status to all of its license applications, allowing it to screen out DACA recipients who the agency says are not qualified to hold professional licenses under a 2011 Indiana immigration law.

The new practice effectively locks out Indiana's roughly 9,000 DACA recipients from more than 70 professional licenses in Indiana, ranging from cosmetology to nursing to architecture. Nearly one in seven Indiana workers are licensed by the agency.

The move has upset DACA advocates including Rep. Ed Clere, R-New Albany, who introduced legislation during a House committee hearing Tuesday that would allow Dreamers to qualify for professional licenses. It passed unanimously and now moves to the full House.

"Indiana has boxed out these young people and this is an opportunity to fix that and make sure they have access to opportunity," Clere said. "If this isn’t fixed, DACA participants who currently hold licenses will be denied a renewal license. This is devastating for individuals and harmful to employers who will lose a cosmetologist, plumber or an engineer or a nurse, to name a few."

Holcomb issued his first statement on the controversy shortly after the vote, throwing his support behind the legislation, while maintaining that his administration acted appropriately.

“Ultimately, Congress needs to clarify federal immigration law regarding DACA," he said. "But, until they act, Indiana state law should allow DACA recipients to skill up and work here in Indiana. While Indiana’s Professional Licensing Agency acted appropriately and in line with what our current laws require, I am encouraged to see there is legislative intent to fix this.”

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A spokeswoman for the state licensing agency said the new practice is merely an effort to comply with a 2011 immigration law authored by Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel.

That law requires state agencies to verify that a person is a U.S. citizen or a qualified alien in order to receive state benefits, including professional licenses. DACA recipients are not qualified aliens under federal law, according to the agency.

"We don’t create public policy," Meredith Lizza, the agency's legislative affairs director, said Monday. "We do have to follow the letter of the law."

Delph, who authored the law before the DACA program was created, said he couldn't comment until he looked further into the issue.

Until last year, the licensing agency relied on social security numbers to determine whether there might be a question about a person's immigration status, Lizza said. But because DACA recipients can legally obtain social security numbers, the agency had no way to identify them, she said.

That prompted the agency to introduce a new section to its license application forms asking applicants to swear under the penalty of perjury that they are either a U.S. citizen or a qualified alien. The agency updated most forms between August and November.

Some say the change is wreaking havoc in the lives of Dreamers who are protected from deportation and granted legal work status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program established by President Barack Obama in 2012.

Nancy Campbell, principal at Prosser Career Education Center in New Albany, said the careers of several of her students have been derailed by the new licensing process.

Her school serves roughly 1,500 students a year, from 20 high school in six counties, who take courses in a number of career-related programs like cosmetology, culinary arts, health science, information technology and more.

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Some of these programs, like cosmetology, allow students to graduate with their high school degree and move directly into the workforce. Upon graduation, students who’ve completed their cosmetology training in a program like Prosser’s can sit for the state exam, gain their licenses and begin their professional career.

Campbell said she’s aware of five or six cosmetology students who have completed a year or two of their training, which will be rendered useless because of their DACA status.

“It’s very much a challenge for some of our kids,” Campbell said. “This is a means of survival for them, a means of providing for their families.

“This is yet another obstacle for them to do what we want everybody to do: be a positive, productive citizen.”

The professional licensing debate brings home to Indiana a debate that has been raging on the national level since President Donald Trump announced in September that he would end the DACA program on March 5.

That plan was dealt a setback Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a federal judge's order that the Trump administration continue the program, instead opting to allow the case to run its normal course through the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

As a result, the program that has protected some 690,000 undocumented immigrants from deportation and enabled them to get work permits will remain in place— at least temporarily.

The decision also relieves some pressure on Congress, where Republicans and Democrats have clashed over the fate of DACA recipients.

Democrats want the program left alone or made permanent through a new law; Republicans, with Trump's backing, have demanded other immigration enforcement and border security enhancements in exchange, including an expansion of the wall along the Mexican border.

The negotiations have been tense, even leading to a three-day government shutdown in January as Democrats briefly demanded a DACA solution as part of a spending bill.

Now, Indiana lawmakers are wading into the issue — at least as it concerns professional licensing.

Clere's proposal appears to have support from leadership in the House, and Senate leader David Long, R-Fort Wayne, called the license denials an "unintended consequence."

"I support getting it fixed," he said. "It’s unexpected, but we’ll deal with it.

USA Today contributed to this story.

Call IndyStar reporter Tony Cook at (317) 444-6081. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Call IndyStar education reporter Arika Herron at (317) 444-6077. Follow her on Twitter: @ArikaHerron.