ABC/with video: Skyline High School student hopes Michigan will let him drive

By Cindy Heflin Associate news director

Posted on Wed, Jan 23, 2013 : 6:17 p.m.

Editor's note: Javier Contreras' first name has been corrected.

Ann Arbor Skyline High School senior Javier Contreras has grown up in Michigan, but he’s not allowed to drive here.

Contreras is a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, who ruled in October that undocumented immigrants who can stay in the United States under an Obama Administration program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals cannot be issued Michigan driver’s licenses.

But there is new hope that the rule will be changed, The Detroit News reported. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency on Friday clarified that the policy that grants temporary work permits and Social Security cards to undocumented immigrants gives them "legal presence" in the country, The News reported.

Cantreras, who came with his parents from Mexico when he was 4 years old, was recently featured in an ABC News/Univision video. In the video, he speaks about his involvement at Skyline where he was crowned homecoming king last fall, and his connection to the community. But he says he may have to move to another state because getting a job and attending college will be much more difficult without a license.