On Wednesday, Gov. Jan Brewer signed an executive order reaffirming current Arizona law and instructing state agencies to deny driver's licenses and other public benefits to illegal immigrants who receive work authorizations under Obama's new mandate.

"The issuance of Deferred Action (…) or employment authorization documents to unlawfully present aliens does not confer upon them any lawful or authorized status and does not entitle them to any additional public benefit."

In the order, Brewer further noted that this would be a safeguard against illegal migrants obtaining access to state benefits which would "have significant and lasting impacts on the Arizona budget, its health care system and additional public benefits that Arizona taxpayers fund."

The governor's executive order was signed just as young illegal immigrants around the nation became eligible to apply for President Obama's deferred action plan. 

This does not come as a surprise, Fox News reported, "Arizona has been in the vanguard of states enacting laws against illegal immigration (…) after President Barack Obama announced the policy change in June, Brewer labeled it "backdoor amnesty" and political pandering."

Almost immediately after the executive order was signed, young illegal immigrants in Arizona marched to the state capitol building in order to protest. 

Fronteras Desk reported that as of 8 p.m. Wednesday, "about 60 people were gathered at the capitol. Some planned to spend the night, and there were plans to reconvene in the morning to coincide with the Governor's arrival."

According to Yahoo News, on a conference call with reporters earlier this week, an Obama administration official said it is "up to states' leadership whether to allow deferred action recipients to apply for driver's licenses or in-state tuition at public colleges." Thus leaving the possibility that more states will follow Arizona's example.

"When we found out that Jan Brewer did this, personally there was a lot of shock, personally I was taken aback by that, and then I was just angry," Dulce Vasquez, 20, told reporters from Fronteras Desk. "Because then I felt like our giant step wasn't so giant."

Immigration advocates share the illegal youths' anger, but have also started preparations to take Brewer and the state of Arizona to court.

Evelyn Cruz, an Arizona State University clinical law professor told US News that Brewer's order might conflict with federal law regarding the REAL ID Act of 2005, a federal law that lists immigrants granted "deferred action" as being eligible for a license.

Mercury News reported that California, on the other hand, would grant driver licenses to all illegal immigrants once the Obama administration granted them work permits.

 

Read more of Neon Tommy's coverage on the Deferred Action Plan.

Reach Executive Producer Francesca Martens here; follow her here.