California Sues Over Trump's DACA Reversal

By Christopher Coble, Esq. on September 12, 2017 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

The State of California, along with Maine, Maryland, and Minnesota, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security following the Trump administration's announcement that it would rescind former President Barack Obama's executive order regarding Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. The program had provided limited legal protection for individuals brought to the country illegally as minors.

California is claiming that Trump's efforts to cancel DACA protections are "illegal and seriously harm States' interests in ways that have already started to materialize and that threaten to last for generations." You can read the full lawsuit below:

Dismantling DACA

While the Trump administration had been mum on DACA for months, Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Elaine Duke issued a memo last week advising that DHS would cease accepting new applications under the DACA program and would only issue renewals for current grantees whose DACA protection expires on or before March 5, 2018. The memo also eliminates "advance parole," which allowed DACA grantees to return to the U.S. after visiting families outside the country.

California's lawsuit claims DHS's reversal on DACA would mean that grantees will lose their work authorization, requiring their employers to terminate them as employees, therefore losing any employer-based health insurance and increasing state expenditures on healthcare and threatening public health overall. It also alleges those still in school under DACA protections can lose enrollment privileges

The Mean Man

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra called Trump's order "unlawful and mean-spirited," in a public statement last week, claiming it is unconstitutional and would irreparably harm the state's economy. "It just so happens that one of every four of the DACA recipients in this country ... live and work and call California their home, and they've been helping California become the sixth-largest economy in the world."

Here is the lawsuit, in full:

State of California v. Department of Homeland Security by FindLaw on Scribd