Suit by immigrant groups and DACA recipients says program's rescission is a 'double-cross'
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Several immigrant groups, including CASA de Maryland, joined with several recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program to keep in place protections for immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children.
The suit (PDF), filed in federal court in Maryland, claimed the Trump administration acted with unconstitutional racial animus and failed to follow proper procedures when it ended the program, according to a press release. The Associated Press and the Baltimore Sun have coverage.
Rescinding the program means a loss of work permits and protection for about 800,000 in the program, the suit says. The suit also says the administration is backing away from assurances that information submitted by DACA applicants would not be used for immigration enforcement.
The decision to end the program “is a double-cross,” the suit says. “It is not only unjustified, but offensive to the basic values of this nation. It is arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law, and therefore it cannot stand.”
The suit claims violations of due process and equal protection clauses of the Fifth Amendment, as well as violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in September that the program was ending because the Obama administration circumvented Congress to implement it. President Donald Trump had said it was up to Congress to act.
The phase-out of the program begins at midnight Thursday, which is the deadline for immigrants who benefited from the DACA program to reapply for benefits, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Several states have also sued to keep the program in place.
Besides those from CASA de Maryland, lawyers filing the latest suit are from the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, Howard University law school’s civil rights clinic, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer.
