California files lawsuit to challenge DACA rescission News
California files lawsuit to challenge DACA rescission

California filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] on Monday against the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) [official website], alleging the rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) [USCIS materials] program is unconstitutional. The complaint alleges that DACA’s rescission violates the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process and Equal Protection clauses, along with other allegations including violations of federal laws. The 37-page complaint emphasizes the benefits and purposes of DACA, stating in part:

According to the DACA Memorandum, DACA’s purpose was to ensure that resources were appropriately allocated to individuals who were higher priorities for immigration enforcement, recognizing among other things that young people brought here as children lacked the intent to violate the law. DACA recognizes that there are “certain young people who were brought to this country as children and know only this country as home” and that immigration laws are not “designed to remove productive young people to countries where they may not have lived or even speak the language.”

California was joined in the lawsuit by Maine, Maryland and Minnesota.

California is not the first state to file suit over DACA’s rescission. Last week, a group of 15 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision [JURIST reports] to end the Obama-era DACA program. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra [official profile] filed a separate action than that of the other 15 states because one of every four DACA participants lives in California. The Trump administration’s decision to disband [CNN report] DACA will affect nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants. No new undocumented immigrants may register under DACA, and the immigrants whose DACA documents are about to expire must renew by October 5, 2017. According to the administration’s press release, current DACA recipients generally will not be impacted until after March 5, 2018, which will give “Congress the opportunity to consider appropriate legislative solutions.”