Jan Brewer’s Immigration Backlash Begins

Dec 2, 2012 4:45 AM EST

As election-chastened Republicans rush to embrace Latinos, Arizona's infamously anti-immigrant governor finds herself on the wrong side of the fence. By Terry Greene Sterling

Arizona’s Republican governor, Jan Brewer, seemed in perfect lockstep with both her party and Mitt Romney (whom she had heartily endorsed early on) when she issued Executive Order 2012-06 three months ago. The order barred “Dreamers”—young, undocumented immigrants granted temporary relief from deportation by a new Obama administration directive—from receiving Arizona driver licenses. At the time, Brewer called Dreamers “illegal people.”

Earlier this week, those same “illegal people” slapped Brewer with a federal lawsuit. Their lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Law Center, and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund contend (PDF) that Governor Jan violated the constitutional rights of certain young, non-criminal immigrants granted work permits and Social Security cards, as well as a two-year temporary reprieve from deportation, by the Obama administration’s Department of Homeland Security.

Brewer’s actions, and the lawsuit, promise to cast Arizona as an extremist state once again. What’s more, the precedent-setting class-action case will likely drag on for years and be a costly affair, since tens of thousands of Dreamers are thought to live in Arizona. Only two other states—Michigan and Nebraska—have banned qualified Dreamers from driving, and those states are not being sued, advocates say, because they may reconsider their policies.

What’s remarkable about the reaction to the lawsuit in Arizona, and across the nation, is that immigration hardliners aren’t lining up to support Team Brewer. Support for Dreamers, in the meantime, continues to build. Nevada recently announced it would give Dreamers their driver licenses, and California changed its law to make sure its Dreamers could drive.

full article:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/12/02/jan-brewer-s-immigration-backlash-begins.html