In a letter released today, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and nine other state attorneys general urged U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President Donald Trump to repeal a lingering portion of Obama’s amnesty program.
Soon after Trump was sworn in, his administration revoked an Obama-era policy termed Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA)—an embattled policy that illegally directed immigration officers to refrain from actively deporting some illegal immigrants and had been challenged in court by a multi-state coalition led by Texas.
However, at the time, the Trump administration left the broader program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) in place.
It’s that program, which grants temporary legal work status to roughly one million illegal immigrants that Paxton is asking the Trump administration to terminate such that no new DACA permits are issued and no existing DACA permits are renewed in the future
“We respectfully request that the Secretary of Homeland Security phase out the DACA program,” Attorney General Paxton wrote in the letter. “Just like DAPA, DACA unilaterally confers eligibility for work authorization and lawful presence without any statutory authorization from Congress.”
Otherwise, the letter states, Paxton and nine other states (Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Idaho, West Virginia) will pursue legal action against the Trump administration in the hopes of securing a court ruling ordering that DACA be repealed.
A full copy of that letter may be viewed here.
