[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the District of Arizona [official website] on Thursday made permanent an injunction that requires the state to issue driver’s licenses to immigrants who were brought illegally to the US as children. The young people, known as Dreamers [Huffington Post report], were granted a deferral of deportation by President Barack Obama’s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) [materials] program. Under the Arizona law, the Dreamers were prohibited from acquiring driver’s licenses in order to prevent them from obtaining access to government benefits. However, the transportation restriction made every-day life significantly more difficult, and impeded the pursuit of new jobs and the development of business opportunities. These day-to-day hardships were described by the judge as “irreparable harm,” which necessitated the injunction. In upholding the injunction, the judge also affirmed [Guardian report] the president’s authority on deferred deportations by requiring Arizona to accept documents issued under DACA.

The issue of immigration and immigrants’ rights [JURIST backgrounder] has been hotly contested in the aftermath of DACA and Obama’s 2014 executive action [JURIST report] on immigration reform. In early December 17 states filed suit [JURIST report] against the president for his executive action, asserting that the order was an attempt to re-write law, a power designated solely for Congress. In mid-December a district court found parts of the same executive order unconstitutional [JURIST report] on the basis of a violation of separation of powers and the Take Care Clause of the constitution. Last week the US House of Representatives passed [JURSIT report] a funding bill that contained amendments that would block the executive order, and remove funding from the president’s DACA program.