Texas Attorney General Urges Trump to Eliminate DACA, Threatens Lawsuit

By Univision

30 June 17

In a letter, the Republican gave the federal government an ultimatum, asking it to eliminate protections against dreamers or be sued. It states as a reminder that Texas also led the legal challenge against Obama's 2014 executive action to protect undocumented parents.

exas Attorney General Ken Paxton, along with nine state attorneys general and the governor of Idaho, urged the Trump administration Thursday to cancel the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, which protects some 800,000 undocumented immigrants from deportation.

In a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the officials - all Republican - threatened to sue in court over the immigration program that Barack Obama created in 2012.

"We respectfully request that the Secretary of Homeland Security phase out the DACA program," it reads. "Specifically, we request that the Secretary of Homeland Security rescind the June 15, 2012 DACA memorandum and order that the Executive Branch will not renew or issue any new DACA or Expanded DACA permits in the future."

They requested the Trump administration take action by September 5.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security revoked a 2014 Obama-era memo that created the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) program.

The letter states as a reminder that Texas led the legal battle against DAPA, which paralyzed that executive order. Earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly signed the final annulment of the DAPA program, which had been designed to benefit parents.

That same memo stated DACA would remain in effect.

During his campaign for president, Donald Trump said he would immediately end the DACA program. But he has since suggested he would take a lighter approach to the hundreds of thousands of so-called dreamers protected by the executive action.

Texas was joined in the letter by the attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Idaho, West Virginia, and Idaho Governor C.L. Otter.