Sep 30, 2014 3 min read

PHOENIX (AP) — Federal authorities who have pushed back against Arizona’s attempts to confront illegal immigration in recent years face a Tuesday deadline to comment on two state immigration policies being scrutinized by the courts.

The Obama administration is scheduled to provide input in a challenge of Gov. Jan Brewer’s policy that denies driver’s licenses to certain young immigrants who have avoided deportation under a change ordered by the president.

White House officials are also expected to urge a judge to throw out Arizona’s 2005 immigrant smuggling ban.

Brewer and the Obama administration have clashed over illegal immigration before, most notably in a federal challenge seeking to throw out Arizona’s 2010 immigration law, SB1070.

In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law’s most contentious section, requiring police to question, while enforcing other laws, the immigration status of people suspected of being in the country illegally. Other parts, such as a requirement that immigrants carry registration, were struck down.

On Arizona’s driver’s license policy, the federal government didn’t issue a challenge but was asked by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to offer input in a lawsuit by immigrants’ rights advocates who are seeking to overturn it.

In July, a three-judge panel of the court blocked the driver’s license policy and suggested the rules were intended to express hostility toward the young immigrants.

Brewer, a Republican, pointed out that the judges who ruled against her were appointed by Democratic presidents. She has asked a larger panel of the court to reconsider the ruling.

The state driver’s license policy was a reaction to steps the Obama administration took in June 2012 to shield thousands of immigrants from deportation and expand their legal rights. About 580,000 people have been approved to take part in the program, including about 20,000 in Arizona.

Meanwhile, the administration has asked U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton to block the smuggling law as part of its challenge of SB1070, which made a minor change to the older legislation.

The federal government argues the state smuggling law is trumped by a similar federal law. Brewer’s attorneys contend the smuggling law doesn’t conflict with federal law and that the Obama administration hadn’t presented a proper challenge of the entire smuggling law.

The dispute over the smuggling law is all that remains of the administration’s challenge of SB1070, but a coalition of civil rights groups is continuing to push a separate challenge.