Bill to aid hopeful migrant nurses in Arkansas OK'd

The Senate on Thursday approved legislation to make nursing licenses available to Arkansans who were brought to the United States illegally as children.

The Senate voted 23-4 to send House Bill 1552, sponsored by Rep. Megan Godfrey, D-Springdale, to the governor.

It would allow the state Board of Nursing to issue licenses to recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy created by President Barack Obama in 2012.

[RELATED: Complete Democrat-Gazette coverage of the Arkansas Legislature]

The policy required "Dreamers" -- named for the never-passed DREAM Act, or Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act -- to be under age 31, to have arrived in the country before they were 16, to pass a criminal background check and to be in school or have a high school diploma or GED or to have served in the military.

HB1552 is designed to help aspiring nurses whose career plans were upended when the state nursing board stopped issuing licenses to DACA recipients in 2017.

-- Michael R. Wickline

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