15 states plus Washington, D.C., sue to block Trump's plan to rescind DACA

(Image credit: David McNew/Getty Images)

published 6 September 2017

On Wednesday, 15 states plus Washington, D.C., sued the Trump administration over its decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of New York, argues that Trump's decision to end the program, which protects immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, violates the due process and equal protection clauses of immigrants as well as the Administrative Procedure Act.

"The president has made numerous statements on the campaign trail and in office disparaging Mexicans. We allege the president's own statements make clear that DREAMers are being targeted based on their national origin," said Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D), who is heading up the effort with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey (D). Democratic attorneys general from Connecticut, Delaware, D.C., Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia also signed on to the lawsuit.

Ferguson compared Trump's move to rescind DACA to his executive order temporarily banning immigration from six predominantly Muslim countries. "If a majority of DREAMers were Caucasian, does anybody really think the president would have taken the action he took yesterday?" Ferguson said.