ACLU Statement on States Urging Trump Administration to End DACA
WASHINGTON — State officials from Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia sent a letter today to Attorney General Sessions urging the Trump administration to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The letter says that if Trump phases out DACA, the states would dismiss the current lawsuit against the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program, which was filed during the Obama administration. The states said that if the administration does not end DACA, the lawsuit will be amended to include both programs.
Lorella Praeli, American Civil Liberties Union director of immigration policy and campaigns, said:
“For the last two years, the immigrant community has been subjected to then-candidate and now President Trump’s un-American, bigoted attacks. Now, these 10 attorney generals and one governor, led by notorious, anti-immigrant propagandist Attorney General Ken Paxton, are bringing the fight to a new low. They are aligning themselves with the most extreme and vindictive public officials in the country by demanding that young people surrender their ability to live without fear, work legally, and contribute to the country they call home.
“By ruthlessly attacking the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, these elected officials confirmed today that their cravenness knows no bounds.
“DACA is constitutional and has changed hundreds of thousands of young peoples’ lives across the country. We stand with those young people, their friends, and their families in the pursuit of their lifelong American dream.
“The DACA program was the product of years of work and those same foot soldiers will defend the program and the DREAMers against this latest, vicious attack. No matter how hard the GOP works to send people back into shadows, they will not succeed.”
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