Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has decided that illegal immigrants in her state simply will not be eligible for state issued driver’s licenses or state identification cards, no matter what the federal government says. These people would have been eligible for state issued identification under last year’s Deferred Action Childhood Arrival policy issued as an executive order by President Barack Obama late last year.

Almost immediately after the President issued the order, Brewer announced that Arizona would not participate. Immigrant rights groups immediately sought protection from the Arizona state justice system. Part of their argument was that what Brewer was doing amounted to serious “harm” because they would not be able to get legitimate jobs, insurance or other protections without the proper identification.

Brewer’s office has said repeatedly that because they people are in the country illegally they have not earned any such protections; they are illegal and therefore subject to criminal prosecution.

This week a federal judge ruled that Brewer’s decision does no further harm to these people than they should expect for living as an illegal. The judge also said that since nobody was forcing them to drive illegally (without a state issued license) no harm could be claimed. However, he let alone the part of their complaint which argues that they are being denied equal rights under the law.

Regardless of what happens with the rest of the case it seems unlikely that these people living in Arizona illegally will be getting state issued driver’s licenses any time soon.