Republican attorneys general from seven states sued the federal government on Tuesday over the continued existence of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which two judges have ordered must continue to process renewal applications and, after a third judge’s ruling last week, may soon have to accept new applications as well.
The program, instituted during the Obama administration, protects qualified young undocumented people from deportation.
The attorneys general, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (pictured above), were all among the group of nine attorneys general who threatened to sue the Trump administration over DACA last year before Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the program’s termination.
However, while the attorneys general from Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina and West Virginia sued on Tuesday, two states represented in the previous group did not: Idaho and Kansas. Tennessee’s attorney general, though initially part of the group of attorneys general threatening to sue in 2017, ultimately withdrew that threat days before Sessions announced DACA’s termination. Tennessee is not represented in Tuesday’s lawsuit, either.
The plaintiff states requested the following:
A. An order enjoining Defendants from issuing or renewing any DACA permits in the future;
B. A declaratory judgment that DACA violates the Take Care Clause;
C. A declaratory judgment that DACA is procedurally unlawful under the APA;
D. A declaratory judgment that DACA is substantively unlawful under the APA; and
E. Any and all other relief to which Plaintiff States may be entitled.
Read a copy of the suit, via law professor Josh Blackman, here.
