Title
Legislative Policy Update: Lobbying AZDES and AZDOT
Discussion/Direction/Action: Directing Pima County’s lobbyist to work with AZDES and AZDOT on some rulemaking/training/fixes needed to remove unnecessary barriers and streamline processes for the benefit of refugees and others contributing to our community, as follows.
Work with AZDES to:
A. Ensure that non-credit workforce training, English language acquisition, and other adult education programs that individuals are participating in - whether offered through a refugee resettlement agency, a local community college, or another provider - COUNT toward the new work requirements for able-bodied adults in HR1, in order to be able to access benefits; AND
B. Work with education providers to identify/clarify acceptable forms of documentation that can serve as proof of participation in non-credit educational programming to meet work requirements; AND
C. Provide clarity on which volunteer programs are recognized as State-approved for meeting work requirements.
Work with AZDOT to:
A. Ensure that all customer service staff at all MVD locations across Arizona are made aware of the fact that refugees, by virtue of their official refugee status through the Department of State (Form I-94, which they have when they enter the U.S.) and their unrestricted Social Security Card issued by the Social Security Administration, are eligible to work in the United States, and that that eligibility does not expire.
B. Ensure that all MVD staff understand that the expiration date on a refugee’s “Work Authorization Card,” a form of picture ID they obtain early in resettlement, does NOT mean there is an expiration date to their ability to live and work in the United States. MVD staff should not be turning away a refugee with proper documentation in terms of issuing or renewing an Arizona Driver’s License, and should not be linking the Driver’s License Expiration Date to the date shown on the “Work Authorization Card.” (District 2)