Over the last year, Texas Republicans have enacted sweeping regulatory and legal changes that have upended all facets of life for noncitizens. The state has limited who can get an occupational license; register or buy a car; obtain commercial driver’s licenses; and get in-state tuition at colleges and universities.
The changes are wreaking havoc on the 1.7 million people without documentation in Texas, as well as tens of thousands of refugees and people with protected legal status, like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Already, more than 6,400 refugees and DACA recipients have lost their commercial driver’s licenses. Many more noncitizens are expected to lose the ability to work in licensed industries from construction and medicine to air conditioning and cosmetology.
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When a bill aiming to revoke in-state tuition from undocumented college students stalled out last session, immigration advocates thought this meant the 2001 law would remain safe for at least the next two years.
But just days after the Legislature gaveled out, Attorney General Ken Paxton took matters into his own hands, working with the Department of Justice to get the courts to overturn the law. Students are now required to show they are “lawfully present” in the country to get in-state tuition, imperiling higher education access for potentially as many as 18,500 students who had previously been covered by the program. Some universities have incorrectly told DACA recipients they no longer qualify, even after receiving guidance from the state, which arrived months after the ruling and did little to quell the confusion.
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In September, Abbott directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to strictly enforce a federal English proficiency requirement for truck drivers, and ordered the agency to stop issuing commercial driver’s licenses for non-English speakers. DPS said it “took enforcement action” against more than 400 drivers, most of whom were licensed in Mexico, as a result.
Soon after, the agency said it would no longer issue or renew commercial driver’s licenses for DACA recipients, refugees and people with asylum. This came after the Trump administration issued a similar policy at the national level, which was temporarily blocked by a federal court for failing to “articulate a satisfactory explanation for how the rule would promote safety.”
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The Department of Motor Vehicles also added stricter photo identification requirements for registering and purchasing a car, after state Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, called on the agency to enhance its oversight.
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Most recently, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation voted to sharply limit which types of noncitizens can be licensed for a wide range of jobs, from electricians to speech pathologists and dog breeders. Most noncitizens will not be able to obtain an occupational license unless they have a green card, are granted asylum or refugee status, or are recognized as a victim of human trafficking; DACA recipients will be ineligible for licenses.
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The post Texas Is Cutting Undocumented Immigrants Off From School, Work and Driving appeared first on American Renaissance.
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