Dreamers no longer banned from 70 occupations under bill Holcomb expected to sign

DACA recipients, often called Dreamers, would no longer be shut out of more than 70 occupations in Indiana under legislation headed to Gov. Eric Holcomb's desk. 

Indiana lawmakers gave final approval Wednesday to a bill that would change the citizenship verification requirements for obtaining professional licenses to include the roughly 9,000 young immigrants in Indiana who were brought to the United States illegally as children but granted legal work status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Gov. Eric Holcomb is expected to sign the bill.

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Controversy erupted when the Holcomb administration recently began screening out DACA recipients through a change in the application forms used by the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, which coordinates licensing for nearly one in seven Indiana workers.

The move effectively locked out DACA recipients from scores of occupations in Indiana, ranging from nursing to architecture to hair styling. At least 37 DACA recipients have been unable to obtain a professional license because of the new practice, according to the agency. 

Holcomb has expressed support for the new legislation while defending the licensing agency's actions. The change to the license applications was necessary to comply with a 2011 state immigration law, the agency has said.

The DACA program, established by President Barack Obama in 2012, protects immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children from deportation and grants them legal work status.

DACA participants pay taxes and can obtain Indiana driver's licenses and social security numbers, but can't qualify for many public benefits, including Indiana in-state college tuition rates and food stamps.

Holcomb recently said he also supports giving state colleges and universities the ability to offer in-state tuition rates to DACA recipients living in Indiana. But any such effort will have to wait until next year.

It's not even clear, though, whether the DACA program will be in effect then. President Donald Trump had planned to end the DACA program earlier this month, but that move was blocked  when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a federal judge's order that the Trump administration continue the program.

In the meantime, the fate of the nation's nearly 700,000 DACA recipients has been a source of tense negotiations in Congress, leading to a three-day government shutdown in January as Democrats briefly demanded a DACA solution as part of a spending bill.

Democrats want the program left alone or made permanent through a new law; Republicans, with Trump's backing, have demanded other immigration enforcement and border security enhancements in exchange, including an expansion of the wall along the Mexican border.

USA Today contributed to this story.

Call IndyStar reporter Tony Cook at (317) 444-6081. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.