Texas and six other states sue Trump administration to force an end to DACA

Texas and six other states are suing the Trump administration over its failure to terminate an Obama-era program that provides work permits to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.

The lawsuit signals growing GOP frustration with President Trump’s struggles to advance his immigration policies and could lead to conflicting federal court decisions that would put the fates of 690,000 immigrants known as “dreamers” in the hands of a deeply divided Supreme Court.

Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Brownsville. It asks the court to rule on whether President Obama’s 2012 decision to grant deportation protections and two-year work authorizations to young undocumented immigrants — without congressional approval — was lawful.

Texas and other states had threatened legal action last year, which prompted the Trump administration to announce in September that it would gradually end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program starting March 5.

Defenders of the program challenged that decision in court, and federal judges in California, New York and most recently, the District of Columbia have temporarily blocked the Trump administration from carrying out its plans.

Joining Texas in the DACA lawsuit are the Republican attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina and West Virginia.

“Our lawsuit is about the rule of law, not the wisdom of any particular immigration policy,” Paxton said in a statement. “Left intact, DACA sets a dangerous precedent by giving the executive branch sweeping authority to ignore the laws enacted by Congress and change our nation’s immigration laws to suit a president’s own policy preferences.”

The Justice Department and Homeland Security Department declined to comment.

The suit asks the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to “declare DACA unlawful” and block the federal government from issuing any more work permits.

Paxton said the lawsuit does not ask the Trump administration to deport immigrants or rescind existing permits.