Six DREAMers sued the Trump Administration on Monday demanding that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) benefits continue. The six California plaintiffs contend that any rescission of benefits would violate their constitutional rights.
The DACA recipients also urge that registering for the Obama Administration program made them vulnerable because they provided their personal information to the federal government. The plaintiffs claim their due process rights were violated and the Trump Administration did not follow the proper legal procedures to rescind the DACA program.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on September 5 that the DACA program would be rescinded. As reported by Breitbart News, Sessions said the Obama Administration “deliberately sought to achieve what the legislative branch specifically refused to authorize on multiple occasions. Such an open-ended circumvention of immigration laws was an unconstitutional exercise of authority of the executive branch,” he explained.
Dulce Garcia and five other Los Angeles area plaintiffs filed the lawsuit on Monday, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.
Garcia, a San Diego attorney told Democracy Now!:
One of them is the promise that we relied on. We relied on the government telling us, “Come out of the shadows, give us your information, and you won’t be deported. You’ll renew your DACA permit for two years.” And I very much depended on that. I have a practice, and I just opened a second law firm this year. And I signed a five-year lease this year in May, thinking that I would be able to renew this DACA work permit. And so a lot of us depended on this promise of the government saying, “If you step out of the shadows, you do the right thing, you follow the rules, and we’re going to protect you.”
The DACA plaintiff added:
And I went out into the community as a lawyer asking people to sign up for DACA: “Come out of the shadows. You’re going to be saved. It’ll be a life changer for you.”
The complaint, filed in federal district court in San Francisco, is now one of three cases fighting for DACA benefits in the liberal jurisdiction. The University of California filed suit, and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is leading a group of state attorneys general in other lawsuits filed there.
The Obama Administration created the DACA program in 2012 to give approximately 800,000 illegal aliens work permits and Social Security numbers, and to protect them from deportation. President Obama later expanded that number to 4.5 million through DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans).
Opponents say the program takes jobs and other opportunities away from Americans and drives down wages for U.S. citizens.
A DACA rescission lawsuit was also filed in the Eastern District of New York on September 7 (New York v. Trump). Breitbart News reported that 15 leftist attorneys brought five different arguments, including the equal protection claim that the decision to rescind DACA discriminates on the basis of race and is “anti-Mexican.”
The Fifth Circuit ruled that DAPA is illegal and DACA could suffer a similar fate if the issue is determined in court.
Breitbart News reported in detail why DACA is illegal, including that only Congress can make immigration law. Again, DACA was set into place via executive action by the Obama Administration.
U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson Devin O’Malley said the agency would defend the decision to rescind DACA, reported the Los Angeles Daily News.
“It was the previous administration’s arbitrary circumvention of Congress that got us to this point,” O’Malley stated. “The Department of Justice looks forward to defending this Administration’s position and restoring respect for the rule of law.”
Breitbart News reported on September 5 that the president indicated Congress has six months to legalize DACA, and if they cannot, he will revisit the issue.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX, GAB, and Facebook.
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