On August 15 2012 The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program went into effect. It allows children who have grown up and raised as Americans but were brought into the United States illegally; to avoid deportation and obtain work authorization. Under the Deferred Action program recipients are provided with: a work permit and a Social Security number. That means they are LEGALLY allowed to work and live in the United States; which includes Arizona.
Arizona collects a state income tax from both residents and nonresidents who earn income in Arizona. Both residents and nonresidents also pay sales taxes (certain items such as food or prescription medications are exempted). These collected taxes are used to fund state programs and benefits for the people of Arizona; such as police protection, licensing and permitting programs, fire protection and infrastructure maintenance. So the recipients of Deferred Action Status are required to PAY Federal & Arizona State Income TAXES .
On the very same day the Deferred Action plan became effective, August 15 2012, Arizona Governor issued Executive Order 2012-06 that instructs state agencies to begin implementing “operations, policy, rule and statutory changes necessary to prevent Deferred Action recipients from obtaining eligibility… for any taxpayer-funded benefits and state identification including a driver’s license,”.
In short Governor Brewer has ordered that certain TAXPAYERS (determined only by virtue of their US immigration status) allowed to live and work in the United States (of which Arizona is one) NOT be given benefits THIER tax dollars are paying for. She is requiring that taxpayers paying for benefits such as a driver license be denied the benefit because they are “not of the right class”.
No one would debate that the United States is a nation of Immigrants. AND what better immigrants could anyone desire but those that meet the requirements of the Deferred Action Program:
- that arrived before their 16th birthday.
- have resided in the US continuously for the last 5 years.
- are in school; have graduated HighSchool, earned a GED or have been honorably discharged from the US military.
- have no felony, serious misdemeanor or group of misdemeanor criminal record.
- are not older than 30 years.
These young people are the very kind of persons that immigrated to this country decades ago that made this country great. It is their youthful energy and ideas that have been the life-blood of the American experiment. Aside from the technicality of not possessing the “right” piece of paper these young people were raised as and are American.
Governor Brewer is using her executive powers not to correct an evil but rather to establish an evil. She wants to deny persons who have/had no choice in their situation the opportunity to stay in the US, become citizens and realize their dreams.
TheDeferred Action Program was announced TWO months (June 15,2012) before it went into effect . Why did Governor Brewer chose to wait until the program went into effect to issue her own executive order? Surely one has to consider that she wanted to get the “Biggest Political Bang” and the most media air time.
Instead of welcoming the innocent, Gov. Brewer’s Executive Order 2012-06 reflects the kind of thinking that led to the Nuremberg laws of 1930’s Germany.
Ironically, Gov. Brewer is denying these young people access to one piece of “evidence” Arizona state law requires of “suspected illegals”, a driver’s license, to prove they are indeed legally in the US.
How shameful and immoral.
Mikal
tilster