DETROIT: President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration may protect millions of people illegally living in the U.S. from deportation, but it doesn’t mean the states where they live will provide driver’s licenses, in-state college tuition or other state services and benefits.
Here’s a look at where immigration policies stand in Michigan:
DRIVER’S LICENSES
Michigan only provides driver’s licenses to people who can prove they are legally living or working in the U.S. The state will maintain that policy and rely on the “federal government to tell us who is legally here in the United States and who is not,” Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s spokeswoman said this week.
Michigan was among a few states that initially resisted giving driver’s licenses to immigrants illegally living in the U.S. when Obama announced in 2012 that they could apply for temporary work permits if they were brought to the U.S. as children. Johnson changed her mind after the Obama administration clarified the immigrants’ legal presence in the country. Civil liberties and immigrants’ rights groups also had sued.
MEDICAID, OTHER STATE SERVICES
Immigrants can apply for assistance such as welfare and Medicaid in Michigan if they have held a Green Card for at least five years. The federally issued card reflects legal permanent status, and holders can eventually apply to become U.S. citizens.
Michigan hasn’t enacted laws to allow or prohibit in-state tuition rates for immigrants living illegally in the U.S. But some of the state’s 15 public universities, including the University of Michigan, have been able to allow such immigrants to pay in-state tuition. The schools are independent under the Michigan Constitution.
WHO IS AFFECTED
Michigan is home to an estimated 75,000 to 150,000 immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, a tiny population compared to states like Texas and California, according to the Migration Policy Institute and other groups that study the issue. Obama’s latest executive order could affect about 35,000 such immigrants in Michigan.
Michigan’s largest population of such immigrants are people from Mexico, followed by immigrants from India, in addition to large populations from Iraq and China.
WHAT’S NEXT
Gov. Rick Snyder has said he strongly supports legal immigration and stresses the importance of bipartisan efforts to improve the nation’s immigration policy. The federal government has approved Snyder’s request for Michigan to host only the second center in the U.S. aimed at attracting foreign investors to create jobs and live in the U.S. He also has asked the Obama administration to designate tens of thousands of work visas for Detroit to attract highly skilled, entrepreneurial immigrants. -PTI
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