The state of Washington is threatening legal action as the Trump Administration looks to end a program that protects young immigrants brought into the U.S. illegally as children.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals – or DACA – program will end. Sessions said there will be an unspecified “wind down period,” which is meant to give Congress some time to come up with a potential replacement.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Monday if President Donald Trump followed through on the decision, the AG’s office would file suit to end Trump’s policy and defend DACA recipients. Ferguson says he’s been working with legal teams around the country, and expects to be joined by other states in the action.
DACA, created in an executive order by former President Barack Obama in 2012, allows so-called “dreamers” – young people whose parents brought them to the U.S. illegally as children – to receive legal protection from deportation and a work permit provided they attend college or serve in the military.
Nationally, Trump’s decision will affect more than 750,000 young people who have obtained work permits through DACA to either study or hold a job. The permits last two years and were renewable.
Under Trump’s new plan, once a Dreamer’s work permit expires, that person will be eligible for deportation, effectively phasing out the program by 2019.
Ferguson was one of 19 attorneys general who signed a letter in July urging Trump not to repeal DACA. (AP, McClatchy, Spokesman-Review)
