Will Racke on September 6, 2017
New York is making good on its promise to sue the Trump administration over ending a program that protects illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation.
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will announce a multistate lawsuit to protect beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program at a news conference Wednesday, reports Reuters.
Schneiderman and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had vowed Monday to challenge the administration if it moved to end DACA. Cuomo said canceling the program would be “cruel, gratuitous, and devastating” to the 42,000 DACA recipients living in New York.
Implemented by the Obama administration in 2012, DACA allows certain illegal immigrants to avoid deportation and obtain work permits. Eligible recipients must have arrived in the U.S. before age 16 and have lived here since June 15, 2007, and they could not have been older than 30 when the program was enacted.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday that the administration will begin an “orderly” unwinding of DACA. Under the new guidelines, federal immigration authorities will no longer accept applications from new DACA recipients. Existing beneficiaries whose status is set to expire before March 5 have until October 5 to renew their applications for a two-year extension. (RELATED: Trump Administration Announces Rollback Of DACA Program)
Schneiderman’s office says the New York lawsuit will include other states, reports Reuters. Officials in California and Washington also threatened Monday to take legal action if Trump canceled DACA.
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