Attorneys general in 15 states and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit to protect recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which the Trump administration started winding down this week.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson is leading the lawsuit, and his state was joined by New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia.
The lawsuit was filed in the Eastern District of New York on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the Department of Homeland Security had, through a memo, rescinded the program — more commonly known as DACA — in order to give Congress to come up with a new legislative solution. Though opponents of DACA have argued it is unconstitutional, a federal court has never ruled on the matter.
The program, instituted through a DHS memo under former President Barack Obama in 2012, protects young illegal immigrants from deportation and gives them a work permit. There are currently almost 800,000 people enrolled in the program, known as Dreamers.
