(MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN) – Governor Tony Evers signed 2025 Wisconsin Act 240 into law on April 9, 2026, opening state professional and occupational licenses to DACA recipients who hold valid, unexpired federal work permits.

Evers signed the bill at Nuevo Mercado El Rey in Milwaukee, joined by advocates, lawmakers and business leaders. The law allows recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals to seek licenses across Wisconsin if they have a current Employment Authorization Document from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The change reaches roughly 5,100 DACA recipients in Wisconsin, based on September 2025 data from the Migration Policy Institute. Many had federal permission to work but could not obtain state credentials in licensed professions.

“Here in Wisconsin, whether it’s restrictions on obtaining a driver’s license to operate a vehicle or certain work-related credentials, unnecessary barriers are holding hard-working people, as well as our workforce, economy, and communities, back,” Evers said.

Assembly Bill 759, now Act 240, passed the Assembly unanimously in February 2026 and cleared the Senate 31-2 in March 2026. The vote margins gave the measure unusual bipartisan strength in a state where immigration policy often divides lawmakers.

State Rep. Amaad Rivera-Wagner, a Democrat from Green Bay and the bill’s lead sponsor, cast the measure as a state labor response rather than a change in immigration law. “At a time when we are seeing cruelty and chaos coming out of the federal government, this bill shows Wisconsin can choose a different path,” Rivera-Wagner said at the signing ceremony.

Supporters tied the law to a labor market shortfall that lawmakers said Wisconsin could not ignore. State labor data cited during debate showed about 140,000 job openings and 90,000 active job seekers in early 2026, with healthcare, education and the trades among the sectors under the most pressure.

“From our hospitals to our classrooms to our small businesses, we need people ready to contribute,” Rivera-Wagner said. He also said DACA recipients already must meet background checks, tax obligations and the same education and training rules as other applicants.

Act 240 applies to occupations regulated by the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services. The affected fields include registered nurses, dentists, teachers, emergency medical technicians, plumbers, electricians, barbers, cosmetologists and real estate agents.

The licensing path remains tied to federal status. Applicants must hold current DACA status, present a valid DHS-issued Employment Authorization Document, and satisfy all standard state requirements, including exams, training, education and background checks.

Wisconsin linked the term of a professional license to the worker’s federal work authorization. That means a license expires when the Employment Authorization Document expires, typically every two years, and can renew if the federal authorization also renews.

“So long as the worker’s federal work authorization is renewed, their credentials may be renewed,” the governor’s press release said. If the federal permit lapses, the state credential ends with it.

The law puts Wisconsin alongside 19 states that already allow licensure for DACA recipients. Supporters said that gap had put Wisconsin at risk of losing trained workers to neighboring Illinois and Minnesota.

State officials and advocates argued that the previous rules blocked workers who were already educated in Wisconsin and legally employed under federal authorization. In education and healthcare, that meant licensed openings stayed vacant while trained candidates looked across state lines or abandoned those careers.

By April 15, 2026, six days after Evers signed the law, the Department of Safety and Professional Services had received initial applications from DACA recipients in nursing and EMT programs. Approvals were expected by late April for applicants who met the deadlines.

Milwaukee officials, including statements from the Common Council, welcomed the measure as a gain for neighborhoods with large immigrant populations. They said the law could reduce out-migration and strengthen local tax bases by keeping trained workers in the state.

DACA recipients nationally number more than 505,000 and come from nearly 200 countries, according to figures cited by supporters of the bill. In Wisconsin, they have lived under DACA protections since 2012 and, in many cases, completed professional training while remaining shut out of licensing systems.

Backers of Act 240 said the law would reach high-demand jobs quickly. They pointed to nursing shortages that lawmakers said could leave thousands of positions unfilled, understaffed school districts looking for teachers, and construction trades facing a 15% vacancy rate in skilled roles.

The economic case extended beyond staffing counts. Supporters said DACA students have paid $1.2 billion in tuition and fees statewide since 2012, and they argued Wisconsin was undercutting its own investment when graduates could not obtain the licenses needed to work in their fields.

Advocates also framed the law as narrow. It does not create immigration benefits, alter federal rules or grant legal status. It allows state regulators to recognize existing federal work authorization for licensing purposes.

The federal backdrop remains unsettled. DACA renewals continued through early 2026 for Wisconsin’s recipients, but ongoing litigation still clouds the program’s future, and recipients must file renewal requests 120-150 days before an Employment Authorization Document expires to avoid a gap.

That timing now carries more weight for licensed workers in Wisconsin. A lapse in federal work authorization can interrupt the ability to practice, even after a person has completed the education, testing and licensing process.

Wisconsin’s move also stands apart from other federal immigration debates this year. On February 25, 2026, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem backed the Dalilah Law, a proposal that would bar states from issuing commercial driver’s licenses to non-citizens, while Wisconsin’s new law focused on professional services and tied each credential to existing federal authorization.

Evers’ office described Act 240 as a workforce measure aimed at high-need industries. Supporters said that approach helped build support across party lines, especially because the law preserved the ordinary licensing checks already in place for every applicant.

Rivera-Wagner closed the signing ceremony with a broad endorsement of the bill’s approach. “This is what good government looks like,” he said.