Attorneys general from 15 states and the District of Columbia have sued to stop the Trump administration from winding down the DACA program, which granted a reprieve from deportation to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, the Washington Post reports. The suit in federal court in the Eastern District of New York alleges that rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was a culmination of President Trump’s “oft-stated commitments — whether personally held, stated to appease some portion of his constituency, or some combination thereof — to punish and disparage people with Mexican roots.” The suit says ending the program would damage states because DACA beneficiaries pay taxes, go to state universities and contribute in other ways.
“Rescinding DACA will cause harm to hundreds of thousands of the States’ residents, injure State-run colleges and universities, upset the States’ workplaces, damage the States’ economies, hurt State-based companies, and disrupt the States’ statutory and regulatory interests,” the attorneys general wrote. The states listed as plaintiffs are New York, Massachusetts, Washington, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia, along with the District of Columbia. The program, which has allowed nearly 800,000 immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to obtain temporary work permits and other benefits, will be unwound gradually. Immigrants already enrolled can stay until their two-year work permits expire. Those whose permits expire through March 5, 2018, are allowed to seek renewals if they apply by Oct. 5. Advocacy groups are scrambling to meet that deadline to help 150,000 DACA recipients renew their status.