Following President Donald Trump’s decision to end DACA, 15 states and Washington D.C. have now filed a lawsuit against Trump for his choice, Teen Vogue says. D.C., Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington State have all decided to sue the president.
In addition to filing the lawsuit against Trump, the states’ attack includes the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the country’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the United States as a whole. Yup, they went there.
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey addressed her state's involvement on Twitter, believing that Trump's move was "without justification or due process."
.@POTUS, without justification or due process, just attacked 800K #Dreamers. We're suing because we stand with them. https://t.co/HNlOcsOgNA
— Maura Healey (@MassAGO) September 7, 2017
The lawsuit references comments Trump made about Mexico when announcing his official presidential campaign. In the 2015 speech, Trump was quoted as saying, "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best...They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us."
The states' argument also lists other examples of Trump speaking out against Mexicans, reading, "As President Trump's statements about Mexico and those with Mexican roots show, the President has demonstrated a willingness to disparage Mexicans in a misguided attempt to secure support from his constituency, even when such impulses are impermissible motives for directing governmental policy."
The states are asking for the rescinding of the DACA program to be unauthorized. According to ABC News, legal experts say that evidence of Trump's bias isn't strong enough for this situation. Immigration expert Kari Hong told ABC, "It might be able to muck up the works, maybe push off the effective date of the repeal, but I don't see litigation being successful in the same way as the travel ban."
Under Trump's ruling, those in the DACA program are protected until their permits expire. Before Oct. 5, they can renew permit that may expire before next March, but DACA is not currently accepting new applicants. We'll have to keep an eye on the program and the progress of the lawsuit to see if anything noteworthy may change Trump's decision in the next few months.