American Civil Liberties Union

The ACLU welcomed President Obama’s announcement earlier today to prioritize federal immigration reform, and stressed the need for a common-sense system that is fair, just and respects everyone’s civil liberties.

The president’s speech in Las Vegas came shortly after a bi-partisan group of senators – ‘the Gang of Eight’ – put forth its proposal. The ACLU has released a framework for immigration reform, which urges policymakers to ensure a crucial set of priorities is adopted in order to ensure people’s civil rights are protected.

This week the Iowa Department of Transportation announced that young immigrants who came to the country as children—or “DREAMers”—will be eligible for driver’s licenses—reversing the state’s decision a month ago to ban them from the roads. The decision affects an estimated 5,000 DREAMers benefiting from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) program, which permits certain young immigrants to remain in the country and apply for work permits on a two-year, renewable basis.

Today, Roll Call published an op-ed we wrote on how curtailing immigration prisons is an easy way for Congress to begin to reduce the deficit, cut government spending, and reform our flawed immigration system.

In addition, there are several steps the Obama Administration can and should take now, without waiting for Congress, to reduce its unnecessary and expensive reliance on immigration prisons.  Here are four:

I am challenging Michigan’s attempt to keep me and other DREAMers from getting driver’s licenses. The ACLU, along with a coalition of civil rights organizations, filed a lawsuit today on behalf of DREAMers like me who are eligible to get driver’s licenses under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy.

Ever since I came to this country as an eight-year-old child, I have been raised just like any other young American. My family left Lebanon for the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1999 to secure their personal safety and a short time later, my parents were faced with another conflict and had to make the difficult decision to come here to avoid the war and danger unraveling around us. My father thought of his family’s safety first, so that we could live in a place where we could be safe and pursue our dreams. He knew this was the country where we could live out our dreams by going to school, working hard and contributing to our community.