The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump Monday in an attempt to protect those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The NAACP is suing Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Homeland Secretary Elaine Duke, among others, for taking away the promise to protect the illegal immigrants who were brought here as children, the group said in a press release.
“The NAACP, whose membership includes DACA registrants across the United States, is filing this lawsuit to protect the hundreds of thousands of Mexican, Caribbean and African immigrants who have been affected by the unlawful termination of the DACA program. Our goal is to prevent the Trump Administration from implementing the full implications of rescinding the DACA program,” said NAACP’s Deputy General Counsel Janette M. Louard.
The United States currently has 800,000 DACA recipients. The DACA program offers two year work permits to people brought to the country illegally as children.
The Trump administration announced in early September that it would be stopping DACA, but with a six month pause in order to give Congress the chance to act if it wanted to. One of Trump’s main campaign promises was to end DACA as soon as he entered office, but he seems to have taken a softer stance on the issue. He tweeted out last week that while he supported tougher border security, he wondered whether it was worthwhile to kick out DACA recipients.
“Ending the DACA program is neither right nor lawful. Given the unstable political climate, our clients and the other Dreamers need to know now that their education and livelihood can continue here, free from the looming threat of deportation,” said Joseph M. Sellers, a lawyer representing the NAACP in the lawsuit.
A Department of Justice spokesperson told The Daily Caller News Foundation that the department looks forward to defending the administration’s decision.
“It was the previous administration’s arbitrary circumvention of Congress that got us to this point. The Department of Justice looks forward to defending this Administration’s position and restoring respect for the rule of law,” Devin O’Malley, a DOJ spokesperson, said.
Six California DACA recipients also sued the Trump administration Monday for rescinding the DACA program. The group argued that canceling the program would severely harm them and violated their due process rights.
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