'See you in court': 15 states and D.C. file lawsuit challenging Trump's DACA rollback
CLOSE
NY’s AG to Trump about DACA: `See You In Court’
AP
Fifteen states and the District of Columbia joined together Wednesday to challenge the Trump administration’s decision to wind down a program that currently shields 800,000 young undocumented immigrants from deportation.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the legal action at a rally where he characterized President Trump’s rollback of DACA – the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program – as “cruel, shortsighted, inhumane and potentially devastating” to young immigrants known as DREAMers who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
More: Trump winds down DACA program for undocumented immigrants, gives Congress 6 months to act
The Trump administration’s Tuesday decision to phase out the program effectively kicks the immigrants’ fate to Congress, which now has six months to find a permanent legislative fix for a program created five years ago in an executive order by President Obama.
“When a bully steps up, we know that you have to step up to stop them quickly,” Schneiderman told a crowd gathered at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
“To President Trump, let me say something I’ve had to say many times this year: I’ll see you in court,” he said, noting that 42,000 people in New York are protected from deportation through DACA.Â
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson and American business leaders also pledged their support for the legal action.Â
On Tuesday, Trump urged Congress to act but also opened the door to a possible reconsideration of his decision, tweeting that he would “revisit” the matter if Congress did not meet the six-month deadline.Â
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who first announced the administration’s action Tuesday, called Obama’s DACA order an “unconstitutional exercise of authority by the executive branch.”
“To have a lawful system of immigration that serves the national interest, we cannot admit everyone who would like to come here,” Sessions said. “It’s just that simple.”
Yet Schneiderman described the Trump administration’s action as “discriminatory,” and pointed out that “no court has ever struck down DACA.”Â
He said: “All people present in this country have rights… The heart of this is discriminatory intent, discriminatory impact.”
The 15 states joining in the lawsuit are:Â New York, Massachusetts, Washington, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia.Â