Board Supports Professional Licensing for DACA Recipients

Milwaukee County Courthouse. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

The Milwaukee County Board is moving to support a proposed state bill that would make DACA recipients — undocumented residents who are otherwise legally working and paying taxes — eligible to apply for professional licensing.

DACA, or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a federal immigration policy that defers deportation and provides legal avenues for employment for undocumented people who came to the U.S. under the age of 16.

Currently, DACA recipients are not eligible for professional credentialing, like a nursing license, in Wisconsin. A piece of legislation co-authored by former county supervisor state Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez (D-Milwaukee) would make it legal for residents in Wisconsin under DACA to apply for professional licensing. The legislation had bipartisan support and received a hearing in the state Assembly. But it was never scheduled in the state Senate and failed to pass before the end of the 2023-24 legislative session.

The bill is dead now. But the county board is likely to put its support behind the policy at the heart of the legislation at its upcoming meeting. Sup. Caroline Gómez-Tom has sponsored a resolution aimed at communicating county government’s support for the policy.

The county board’s Intergovernmental Relations Committee unanimously supported the resolution, with Supervisors Felesia Martin, Ryan Clancy and Sequanna Taylor voting in favor. Other members of the committee, Supervisors Kathleen Vincent and Steve Taylor, were not present.

Wisconsin residents working legally under DACA have work permits and social security numbers, Gómez-Tom noted. “And this would allow them to then expand what other types of work they’re able to do, especially when there’s needs for teachers, nurses, physician assistants, doctors, etc.,” she said.

Ortiz-Velez was one of the lead authors of the Assembly bill. Wisconsin is losing a portion of its skilled workforce to other states because of the current laws governing professional credentialing, she said. College students across the state who are DACA recipients will graduate with degrees in nursing and other fields that require licensing and will have to leave the state to start their career.

“Wisconsin can’t afford to sit on the sidelines and make investments in people to only have someone else utilize that labor we so desperately need and we’ve invested in,” Rep. Ortiz-Velez said.

The Assembly bill was introduced in December and was working its way through the body when the two-year legislative session ended, effectively killing the bill.

“And this really did get a lot of bipartisan support,” Ortiz-Velez told the county committee Monday. “Quite frankly, we ran out of time, and I’m very hopeful, with new maps, that it will have a new day.”