California led three other states in filing a lawsuit Monday against the Trump Administration over its decision to end the DACA program that protected 800,000 immigrants brought to America as children.
Minnesota, Maryland and Maine joined California in the lawsuit seeking to save the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The suit was field in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
“The DACA initiative has allowed more than 800,000 Dreamers, children brought to this country without documentation, to come out of the shadows and become successful and productive Americans. One-in-four of those DACA Dreamers know California as home,” said California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra.
“We will not permit Donald Trump to destroy the lives of young immigrants who make California and our country stronger,” he added. “The court of public opinion has already spoken: the vast majority of Americans agree Dreamers should be here to stay; so now it’s time to fight in every way we can — and on multiple fronts — in the court of law.”
The lawsuit argues that Trump’s decision violates the Constitution and federal laws in three major way:
- Ending the program means that the federal government could renege on the promise it made to Dreamers and their employers that information they gave to the government for their participation in the program will not be used to deport them or prosecute their employers.
- The federal Regulatory Flexibility Act requires the government to analyze the effects of a proposed change on small businesses, many of which are owned by, or employ, Dreamers, and to take comments on the proposed change.
- The termination of DACA directly affects the rights of almost 800,000 people and indirectly affects millions more, as well as small and large businesses, non-profits, and the towns, cities and states that these individuals call home. The federal Administrative Procedure Act requires such a change to be made for sound reasons, and for the public to be able to make formal comments on it before it’s made into law.
A separate group of 15 states, led by New York and Washington, filed suit against the DACA decision last week.
In July, Attorney General Becerra led 20 attorneys general in sending a letter to President Trump urging him to maintain and defend DACA.
