Thread: Texas AG, Others Demand Trump Phase Out DACA

Texas AG, Others Demand Trump Phase Out DACA

NBC News 30 mins ago Suzanne Gamboa

© Jose Montes attends an event on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA and Deferred Action for...Jose Montes

Attorneys general from 10 states and Idaho's governor are threatening to sue the Trump administration if it does not stop granting or renewing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA, by Sept. 5.

They made the threat in a letter sent to Attorney General Jeff Sessions Wednesday. It was signed by attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho Louisiana, Kansas, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter also signed.

The attorneys general said if new DACA permits and renewals were ended by the deadline, they'd dismiss their lawsuit challenging programs former President Barack Obama tried to create with a 2015 executive action. The programs would have allowed millions more immigrants illegally here eligible to remain and to work.

"If by September 5, 2017, the Executive Branch agrees to ... not renew or issue any DACA or expanded DACA permits in the future, the the plaintiffs ... will voluntarily dismiss their lawsuit currently pending in the Southern District of Texas. Otherwise the complaint in that case will be amended to challenge both the DACA program and the remaining expanded DACA permits," the letter states.

But, Texas and 25 other states challenged Obama's executive action in a lawsuit against the federal government and court action kept them from going into effect. A trial on the constitutionality of Obama's action had not been held.

When Obama's term ended and President Donald Trump took over, the Trump administration became the defendant in the lawsuit. The administration said it would no longer defend the programs and rescinded a memo instituting them on June 15 because Trump did not support Obama's 2015 executive action.

Texas and the other state officials that signed the letter are refusing to follow suit and drop the challenge. State officials from several of the states in the lawsuit did not sign the letter.

Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the organization "condemns in the strongest terms each of the state officials who joined in threatening the federal administration to repeal DACA."

He referred to their actions as "xenophobia" and "mean-spirited stupidity" and said the state officials who signed the letter have "etched their names in ignominy."

"MALDEF urges the president not to cave in to the toothless threat in today's Texas letter. Presidential authority does constitutionally extend to protecting DACA recipients, whom the president has repeatedly declared worthy of protection. We urge the president to fight to vindicate that authority," Saenz said.

Saenz said MALDEF, which intervened in the case, will move to dismiss it.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/tex...aca/ar-BBDt3JO

https://www.alipac.us/f12/10-state-c...d-daca-348314/

Texas to Feds: End DACA or We Will Sue, Nine Other States Join



Bob Price


June 29, 2017


A ten-state coalition led by the Texas attorney general sent a letter to the Trump Administration asking for an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program. The group threatened to sue if the federal government does not end the program.

DACA, put in place by an administrative action under the Obama Administration, granted temporary legal status and the right to work to millions of young people brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents.



“We respectfully request that the Secretary of Homeland Security phase out the DACA program,” Texas Attorney General Paxton and the coalition wrote in a letter (attached below) to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “Just like DAPA, DACA unilaterally confers eligibility for work authorization and lawful presence without any statutory authorization from Congress.”

Paxton signed the letter along with the attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Idaho, West Virginia, and the governor of Idaho.

The coalition of states urges the federal government to phase out the DACA program by rescinding the 2012 DACA memorandum. The states also request that no new permits be issued under the program and that existing permits not be renewed. They did not request the revocation of existing permits, nor the deportation of any person covered by DACA.

The letter cites the ruling by Judge Andrew Hanen that blocked the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans) after Texas and other states filed suit. Breitbart Texas reported Hanen issued a temporary ban on implementing the executive amnesty program in February 2015. An appellate court upheld Hanen’s order and the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, letting the lower court ruling stand.

Earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly wiped out former-President Obama’s DAPA program, Breitbart News reported

The coalition compared DACA and DAPA stating, “the Executive Branch does not have the unilateral power to confer lawful presence and work authorization on unlawfully present aliens simply because the Executive chooses not to remove them.”




“For these same reasons that DAPA and Expanded DACA’s unilateral Executive Branch conferral of eligibility for lawful presence and work authorization was unlawful, the original June 15, 2012 DACA memorandum is also unlawful,” the letter continues. “The original 2012 DACA program covers over one million otherwise unlawfully present aliens.”


After requesting that Secretary Kelly phase out the program, the letter states they will amend their original lawsuit to challenge “both the DACA program and the remaining Expanded DACA permits.”



https://www.scribd.com/mobile/docume...er-to-End-DACA


http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/...e-states-join/

MALDEF STATEMENT ON TEXAS LETTER DEMANDING REPEAL OF DACA

June 29, 2017

Los Angeles, CA - Please attribute the following statement on the letter from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and 10 other states demanding that the federal government rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative to Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund):

"MALDEF condemns in the strongest terms each of the state officials who joined in threatening the federal administration to repeal DACA. The signatories have etched their names in ignominy throughout all of future history. Their evident xenophobia is not remotely consistent with the trajectory of our nation's history and future progress. Their political careers and each of their states will suffer from their mean-spirited stupidity.

MALDEF urges the president not to cave in to the toothless threat in today's Texas letter. Presidential authority does constitutionally extend to protecting DACA recipients, whom the president has repeatedly declared worthy of protection. We urge the president to fight to vindicate that authority.

MALDEF takes encouragement from the fact that less than half of the plaintiff states in Texas v. United States joined today's craven letter. For its part, MALDEF, on behalf of the Jane Doe intervenors whom we represent, will be moving to dismiss the case as moot and not appropriate for the threatened expansion."


http://www.maldef.org/news/releases/...epeal_of_DACA/

Paxton threatens to sue over immigration program if Trump does not rescind it


James Barragán,


June 29, 2017


AUSTIN — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and a 10-state coalition have threatened to sue the federal government over an Obama-era program that protects unauthorized immigrants if it is not rescinded by September.

"We respectfully request that the Secretary of Homeland Security phase out the DACA program," Paxton said in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday, using the acronym for the program. "Just like DAPA, DACA unilaterally confers eligibility for work authorization and lawful presence without any statutory authorization from Congress."

The letter was signed by officials from Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, was created by President Barack Obama in 2012. It gives unauthorized immigrants who came to the country as children a temporary, two-year relief from deportation and allows them to work legally in the country.

Nearly 800,000 people have been approved for the program since its implementation, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.


In 2014, the Obama administration attempted to expand the program and extend the protections to unauthorized immigrants who were parents of U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents.
Federal district courts blocked that measure. In a major blow to Obama last year, the U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4 on the issue, allowing the decisions by lower courts to stand and preventing the expanded programs from being implemented.

This month, the Trump administration rescinded parts of the expansion of the children's program and the one for unauthorized immigrant parents, commonly referred to as DAPA.

But the initial 2012 program remains intact. In his letter, Paxton gave the federal government a legal ultimatum.

"If, by September 5, 2017, the Executive Branch agrees to rescind the June 15, 2012 DACA memorandum and not to renew or issue any new DACA or Expanded DACA permits in the future, then the plaintiffs that successfully challenged DAPA and Expanded DACA will voluntarily dismiss their lawsuit currently pending in the Southern District of Texas," he wrote. "Otherwise, the complaint in that case will be amended to challenge both the DACA program and the remaining Expanded DACA permits."


Paxton said this would not require Trump to immediately rescind any permits that have already been issued, change immigration enforcement priorities or require the removal of any unauthorized immigrants.

Advocates for strict immigration enforcement and many Trump supporters have been disappointed by his unwillingness to nix the program despite campaign promises that he would. Trump backpedaled on those promises after taking office, telling unauthorized immigrants who came to the country as children that they shouldn't worry and that he had a "big heart."




"At the very least, people expected that he would allow the program to lapse, and instead he continues to renew them and is issuing DACA deferments to new applicants," said Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for reducing immigration.

Paxton's ultimatum came as welcome news for Mehlman and other groups like his.

"He’s putting the White House on notice," Mehlman said. "He's saying, 'We don’t want to go through this despite you saying that it was unconstitutional, but we may have to seek a judicial opinion saying it was unconstitutional.' "

Tom Jawetz, the vice president for immigration policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, said he was angry and disappointed by an "unwise and inhumane attack on young people."

He said the hundreds of thousands of people who benefited from DACA have gone on to support their communities.

"The idea that we would in the next three months phase out DACA and return nearly a million people to undocumented status is unconscionable," he said.


The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund urged Trump "not to cave in to the toothless threats in today's Texas letter."

"MALDEF condemns in the strongest terms each of the state officials who joined in threatening the federal administration to repeal DACA. The signatories have each etched their names in ignominy throughout all of future history," Thomas Saenz, the group's president, said in a news release. "Their evident xenophobia is not remotely consistent with the trajectory of our nation's history and future progress. Their political careers and each of their states will suffer from their mean-spirited stupidity."




Saenz said he would move to "dismiss the case as moot and not appropriate for the threatened expansion."

David Bier, an immigration policy analyst with the Cato Institute, said he was surprised there hadn't been a legal attempt to challenge the program before.

"I was shocked it didn't happen in 2012, shocked again when they challenged the DAPA orders but didn't try to challenge DACA at the same time and — once they got the decision — shocked why they didn't proceed immediately to challenge DACA as well," Bier said. "They can pretty much hand-select the same judge and same circuit court and really expect to see it play out in the exact same manner as it did in 2015 and 2016."


Mehlman offered an answer. In April, Congress approved Trump's U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, giving conservatives an edge.


"Now that Gorsuch is on the bench," Mehlman said, "it would likely be a 5-4 decision."


https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immi...escind-program

The letter was signed by officials from Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Trump Country to the rescue.

1 day to go.