Governor Jan set off a heated national legal debate and scored points with her conservative fans by issuing an “executive order” denying Arizona’s 80,000 Dreamers driver licenses and state identification cards, along with a handful of state benefits. That evening, Brewer said her order clarified that there would be no state-funded benefits and “no driver licenses for illegal people.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer continues to be a pain in the side for Obama (and countless undocumented young immigrants), with her latest directive denying DREAMers driver licenses.

cheatsheet:

Wednesday was the day DREAMers have been waiting for. Forms went online that allow young immigrants (“childhood arrivals”) to apply for two years of “deferred action,” i.e. deferred deportation. While not a road to citizenship, it is a big step in immigrants rights, one made by an executive order from President Obama back in June. 

Are you a DREAMer who is in the process of applying for deferred action? We want to hear from you! Email us at sam.schlinkert@newsweekdailybeast.com 

Photo: Gregory Bull / AP Photo

REBLOGGING to signal boost. DREAMers—are you out there?

Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children will be able to obtain work permits and be safe from deportation under a new policy announced on Friday by the Obama administration.

The good news, and, really, only news, coming out of today’s announcement in the Rose Garden.

THE PRESDIENT: …Now, let’s be clear — this is not amnesty, this is not immunity.  This is not a path to citizenship.  It’s not a permanent fix.  This is a temporary stopgap measure that lets us focus our resources wisely while giving a degree of relief and hope to talented, driven, patriotic young people.  It is —

 Q    (Inaudible.)

 THE PRESIDENT:  — the right thing to do. 

Q    — foreigners over American workers.

THE PRESIDENT:  Excuse me, sir.  It’s not time for questions, sir.

 Q    No, you have to take questions. 

THE PRESIDENT:  Not while I’m speaking. 

THE PRESIDENT: Precisely because this is temporary, Congress needs to act…

In 1986, Reagan supported an immigration reform that gave amnesty to 3 million illegal aliens.

One of many reasons why Reagan could not have won a GOP nomination today.

This is the reporter heckler who yelled at President Obama during his Rose Garden address on immigration and the Dream Act. His name is Neil Munro, and he works at The Daily Caller. That was not journalism, kids. Here’s video.

[h/t TPM]

Economists will tell you that immigrants raise wages for the average native-born worker. They’ll tell you that they make things cheaper for us to buy here, and that if we didn’t have immigrants for some of these jobs, the jobs would move to other countries. They’ll tell you that we should allow for much more highly skilled immigration, because that’s about as close to a free lunch as you’re likely to find.

Ezra Klein’s nativist argument for immigration

A little-known, but enormously significant, demographic development has been unfolding south of our border. The fertility rate in Mexico—whose emigrants account for a majority of the United States’ undocumented population—has undergone one of the steepest declines in history, from about 6.7 children per woman in 1970 to about 2.1 today, according to World Bank figures. That makes it roughly equal to the U.S. rate and puts it at what demographers call “replacement level,” the point at which women are having just enough babies to sustain the current population. In coming years it’s expected to dip even further. Other countries in Latin America have experienced a similar drop, though not as sharp. All of which means that the ranks of those “invading” hordes are thinning—rapidly.

Arian Campo-Flores on why the illegal immigration issue might not be an issue for much longer

In addition to Arizona, I’ve also lived in Russia, which requires its citizens to carry documents at all times. Police usually carry out spot checks on darker-skinned people from the Caucasus or the “stans”—people who often go to Russia as illegal migrant workers. These workers are also the targets of racially motivated attacks and killings. Average Russians don’t bat an eye.

We don’t want to head in that direction. The overwhelming majority of Mexicans who come here are not criminals. Most are just desperate for honest work. But clearly something needs to be done about the traffickers who bring them to the U.S. Last year the U.S. marshal for Arizona, David Gonzales, told me he had some 200 active warrants for Mexicans in and around Phoenix engaged in organized crime. Last week he told me he had 324, and even more in Tucson. So what’s the solution? Gonzales favors an approach backed by many other law-enforcement and immigration specialists: the federal government, he says, must step in to make the border more secure and to amend the system so more Mexicans can enter the country legally—without the “help” of criminal cartels.

Eve Conant, with a nice pice on Arizona’s immigration law.

Turns out DHS may not cooperate with the Arizona law. Hosenball reports:

Amid the outrage about Arizona’s strict new immigration law, a pivotal question remains: how will the Obama administration respond? Only the feds can deport a person, which means that Arizona will need Department of Homeland Security cooperation to carry out local law. But don’t bet on the state getting it. A DHS spokesperson says the issue is under “review.” But two administration officials, who asked for anonymity to discuss internal DHS matters, tell NEWSWEEK the department has already signaled to Arizona police that it will most likely detain and deport only violent criminals. Everyone else will get a written notice requesting that they appear for a future hearing—warnings that some immigration officers call “run letters” because recipients so rarely show up.