American Civil Liberties Union

Create obstacles to access higher education? Check. Require outrageous tuition rates? Check. Make immigrants live in fear of being deported for simply driving to work or school? Check. Ban DREAMers from the roads? Check.

It seems that officials like Arizona Governor Jan Brewer must carry this checklist of anti-immigrant policies with them at all times. That's certainly how I felt growing up in Arizona as one of many immigrants who came to this country as children known as "DREAMers," named after the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act."

Today Michigan announced that it will allow young immigrants who came to the country as children—or DREAMers—to apply for driver’s licenses, reversing the state’s previous decision to ban them from the roads. The ACLU filed a lawsuit in December challenging the prior policy. The announcement affects an estimated 15,000 DREAMers who stand to benefit from the federal government’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) program.

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.

Last night was a watershed moment for immigrants’ rights in Maryland. Faced with federal inaction and a stalemate on immigration reform, Maryland stepped in to ensure that none of its children are left behind. 

Voters in the state overwhelmingly approved Question 4, a ballot measure known as the Maryland DREAM Act, which expands access to higher education for all of Maryland’s students, regardless of their immigration status. We hope that this move will inspire the incoming Congress to act decisively to pass comprehensive immigration reform.