A group of illegal immigrants sued the Trump administration for canceling the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, arguing that the decision to rescind the executive amnesty was an unconstitutional exercise of presidential authority.
In a lawsuit filed Monday in a San Francisco federal court, six DACA recipients from California claimed the Trump administration did not follow proper administrative procedure when it canceled the program. The suit argues that revoking the protections from deportation amounts to a violation of due process.
“Notwithstanding the severe harm it will inflict, the government arbitrarily decided to break its promises to Plaintiffs and hundreds of thousands of other Dreamers by terminating the DACA program,” plaintiffs’ lawyers said in a court filing. “This cruel bait and switch, which was motivated by unconstitutional bias against Mexicans and Latinos, violates the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment, the due process rights of Plaintiffs and other DACA recipients, and federal law, including the Administrative Procedure Act.”
Monday’s lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal actions against the Trump administration’s DACA decision, and the first brought by individual DACA recipients, commonly known as “Dreamers.” The administration was already facing three separate DACA-related suits from the states of New York and California as well as the University of California system. (RELATED: University Of California President Sues Over DACA Rollback)
The case on behalf of the six DACA recipients could be merged with the other California cases, which were also filed in San Francisco, reports Reuters.
Some legal experts say the state lawsuits against the Trump administration face an uphill climb in federal court because of the president’s wide discretion in setting immigration policy. States may also have difficulty proving injury as a result of Trump’s decision, a necessary component of standing to sue the federal government.
“In a lawsuit intended to salvage DACA, immigrants’ rights advocates and opportunistic politicians like [New York Gov.] Andrew Cuomo might feasibly claim some sort of administrative hiccups — and associated costs — will ensue from phasing out DACA, but this wouldn’t likely rise to the level of injury required to survive a standing challenge,” writes LawNewz blogger Colin Kalmbacher. “That’s because phasing out DACA will not require any affirmative steps be taken by the states and this is what the Trump administration will almost certainly argue if and when pro-DACA suits make it to court.”
Several nationally prominent attorneys are backing the lawsuit on behalf of the six Dreamers, including Harvard Law professor and Trump Twitter antagonist Larry Tribe and Ted Boutrous, who work on a successful court challenge to California’s ban on gay marriage.
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