NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Immigrants who hold federal work permits can keep getting temporary Tennessee driver’s licenses for at least a few more weeks after a judge on Tuesday lengthened an order blocking a sudden change in state policy.
The extended temporary restraining order, signed in Davidson County Chancery Court, requires Tennessee’s Department of Safety and Homeland Security to go on issuing temporary licenses to noncitizens who have valid work authorization and otherwise qualify. It now runs until Dec. 8.
The fight is over a new department rule that stopped treating the federal employment authorization card as proof of legal status. For more than a decade those cards had been accepted at Tennessee license offices, and for many immigrants, including Dreamers brought to the country as children, the card has been the only status document the state would take. Because they lack permanent status, these applicants can only get a temporary license.
The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, the National Immigration Law Center and six immigrants filed the lawsuit. They want the court to throw out the rule and send the department back to its earlier process. Advocates say hundreds of people were turned away for new licenses or renewals once the change took hold, and thousands more could lose the legal ability to drive to work, school and medical care.
The department, for its part, points to a state law requiring applicants for temporary licenses to document a defined period of lawful presence in the country. In its view, a work permit does not meet that test.
A judge first blocked the rule last week. The latest order keeps that protection in place while the case moves toward a full hearing in December.
Immigrants with work authorization who were turned away since the rule began can return to a license center while the order stands, provided they meet the usual requirements.
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