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A rally in support of allowing undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses at the state Capitol on April 26, 2023.

Arizona is home to more than 200,000 undocumented immigrants, most of them are unable to obtain a driver’s license, but community advocates are hoping for change at the state level, and one lawmaker is adamant about delivering that change. Read more»

Attorney General Kris Mayes in January 2023.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes joined nearly two dozen other states last week in defending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program on behalf of more than 30,000 Arizonans DACA recipients. Read more»

Students from around the state arrive by bus to the Arizona Capitol for Aliento’s Education Day on Feb. 15, 2023. The event allows students, educators and other community advocates to talk with legislators about the organization’s policy priorities.

About 150 students conducted 40 meetings with elected officials at the Arizona Capitol during Aliento’s Education Day, advocating for the Promise for Dreamers Scholarship Program and repeal of Proposition 203 that curtails bilingual education in public schools. Read more»

Voters in November said that undocumented high school graduates should be able to access in-state tuition at Arizona universities and receive state-funded financial aid. Gov. Katie Hobbs wants to create a scholarship program aimed at those students.

More than 3,000 undocumented Arizona students could see their dreams of a college degree come true under a new $40 million dollar investment proposed by Gov. Katie Hobbs, aimed at supporting Dreamers who’ve attended a high school in the state for at least two years.  Read more»

Arizona voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure in 2006 that denied in-state tuition – which could save a student thousands of dollars a year – to undocumented residents. Proposition 308 on this fall’s ballot would reverse that, and supporters are confident the state has changed and the law will, too.

Proposition 308 - which would make undocumented students eligible for in-state tuition if they have lived in the state for at least two years and got their high school diploma in the state - would reverse a law that that prohibits undocumented Arizona residents from getting in-state tuition. Read more»

DACA supporters and opponents agree on one thing: The program will always be in danger unless Congress acts on immigration reform. DACA recipients were among those protesting in Washington in this 2017 file photo, when the Trump administration first tried to end the program that protected more than 770,000 undocumented immigrants.

The Biden administration reaffirmed its commitment Tuesday to DACA, officially posting regulations to extend the 10-year-old program that has protected hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants. Read more» 1

Arizona currently denies in-state tuition to undocumented students who live in the state, but that could change with Proposition 308 this fall. The measure would allow any state resident who graduated from a high school in the state to qualify for in-state tuition at the state's universities.

A broad-based group of political, business and immigration leaders rallied Wednesday to drum up support for Proposition 308, the ballot initiative that would guarantee in-state tuition for any Arizona high school graduate, regardless of citizenship status. Read more»

Un nuevo informe dice que los Servicios de Ciudadanía e Inmigración de EE. UU. compartieron información de las solicitudes de DACA con el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas. Aquí se muestra una redada de 2019 en una planta avícola de Mississippi. Solo el 0.03 por ciento de las solicitudes se compartieron durante un período de nueve años, pero los activistas están preocupados.

De más de 3 millones de solicitudes de DACA desde 2012, alrededor de 900 fueron remitidas al Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas, todavía demasiadas para los defensores que dijeron que se les prometió que no se compartiría información con las agencias de control. Read more»

A new report said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services shared information from DACA applications with Immigration and Customs Enforcement over nine years. Only 0.03% of applications were involved, but advocates are still concerned about the sharing.

Of more than 3 million DACA applications since 2012, about 900 were referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement – still too many for advocates who said they were promised no information would be shared with enforcement agencies. Read more»

The 2020 Census may have undercounted Arizona’s population by about 48,000 people, according to one estimate, part of a national undercount of 0.5%. But even if that estimate turns out to be true, it’s better than some feared given the historic challenges the bureau faced last year with a pandemic and last-minute legal fights.

The 2020 Census - particularly challenging with the COVID-19 pandemic and a heated political climate - may have missed more than 1.6 million Americans, about 48,000 of them in Arizona, with the undercount disproportionately falling on minority groups. Read more»

Pedestrians line up to cross the U.S. border checkpoint in Calexico, California, in this file photo. The Build Back Better plan includes $100 billion for immigration reform, including expanded access to visas and DACA-like protection for up to 7 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., but not the pathway to citizenship advocates had pushed for.

Buried in the $1.9 trillion Build Back Better Plan is $100 billion for immigration reform, money that critics say has no business being in the bill and that migration advocates say does not go nearly far enough. Read more»

Immigration officials have added COVID-19 to the list of illnesses requiring vaccinations, including polio, measles, mumps and hepatitis.

Immigrants to the U.S. seeking permanent residency are now are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 under a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services policy update that took effect Friday. Read more»

Jesus Vazquez speaks on Sept. 20, 2021, outside of Sen. Mark Kelly’s office in Phoenix to push the Democrat to secure a pathway to citizenship for immigrants like himself. The day before, an opinion from the Senate parliamentarian on the push to secure a pathway to citizenship through the reconciliation process set back the plan from Senate Democrats.

Members of the We Are Home coalition gathered near U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly’s office in central Phoenix Monday to urge the senator to find “whatever means” to pass a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants following a Sunday parliamentarian setback. Read more»

Protesters march past the Capitol in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2017. Fights over DACA have been a near-constant since it was first approved in 2012, along with judges and lawmakers repeatedly ordering the program stopped and restarted. A federal court this month overturned the program once more.

A federal judge’s ruling that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is unlawful - the latest in a string of reversals and renewals - should have no practical impact on more than 600,000 covered immigrants for now, but it is sure to have an emotional impact. Read more»

Hanen’s ruling does not affect people who currently have DACA, known colloquially as dreamers, or those who are applying to renew their two-year work permit.

A Texas judge on Friday blocked the federal government from granting temporary work permits and deferral from deportation to first-time applicants to the Deferred Action from Childhood Arrivals program. Read more»

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