Nebraska Dreamers win right to get professional licenses after lawmakers override governor's veto

Rss@dailykos.com (kerry Eleveld) · Thursday, April 21, 2016, 7:05 pm

More than 5,000 Nebraska Dreamers won the right to apply for licensure in at least 170 professions that require it in the state. GOP Gov. Pete Ricketts had vetoed the measure last Friday, calling it an "amnesty bill," before lawmakers mustered the votes Wednesday to overturn it, reports the Associated Press:

Senators took the vote on the last day of their legislative session, five days after Ricketts called it unfair to immigrants who followed the legal pathway to citizenship. Young immigrants and other supporters erupted in applause from the gallery of the chamber following the 31-13 vote.

The new law applies to immigrants who received lawful status under President Barack Obama's executive action in 2012 that allowed them to stay. Nebraska had nearly 5,200 youths who qualified as of December, according to the latest data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

[...]

The bill's sponsor, Democratic Sen. Heath Mello of Omaha, said the law's intent is to keep educated youth in Nebraska so they can contribute to the economy.

Well, isn't that refreshing. Two of the state’s largest newspapers—the Omaha World-Herald and the Lincoln Journal Star—released editorials in favor of the bill on the day of the vote. Not all states have licensure restrictions but a 2009 Nebraska law prohibited the state from distributing certain benefits to undocumented immigrants, including professional licenses.

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