If you are an eligible undocumented immigrant in the United States, you may receive a driver’s license and a federal work permit along with deferred action, if your request for deferred action is approved by the USCIS. According to the deferred action policy, recipients of deferred action are also eligible for state issued driver’s licenses. Deferred action which is renewable, is found to be beneficial to the young undocumented youth, who had been fighting for a long time.
Though their aim is the DREAM Act, that will grant legal status to people who came to the United States as minors, implementation of deferred action is considered to the first step in their journey. Many young people around the United States are now hoping to receive deferred action which will allow them to stay back in the country as the recipients of deferred action may not be questioned and placed in removal proceedings for the period for which they are granted deferred action.
Now, by receiving deferred action they will be free to reside in the country and work legally. Driver’s licenses will allow them to drive freely and they may not always go around the country with a deportation fear. This makes the undocumented youth who are in the country for a very long period of time, happy, that they are going to receive something, for which they had been fighting all these days.
However, there are few American states like Arizona and Nebraska, that deny state benefits to undocumented youth who receive deferred action. That is likely to affect a lot of undocumented immigrants in those states. Though President Barack Obama’s new immigration program will grant driver’s licenses to the recipients of deferred action, there is a likelihood that some of them may not get that benefit as it depends on the state where they live. In general, the deferred action policy that will temporarily shelve the deportation of eligible undocumented youth, will grant employment authorization, driver’s licenses and Social Security cards to people who receive deferred action.