In an order Monday, U.S. District Court Judge David Campbell said the challengers to the former governor's executive order are entitled to almost $1.9 million in legal fees. And Campbell agreed they are owed more than $81,000 in other costs.

That's on top of whatever the state had to pay its own outside attorneys in the losing legal effort, a number that the Attorney General's Office said was not immediately available.

"That's outrageous," Brewer told Capitol Media Services when informed of Campbell's order. And the now-former governor said she still believes her directive to deny licenses to dreamers based on her reading of state law was legal, no matter what the courts ruled.

"I believe in the judicial system," she said. " But I think that our interpretation was correct."