California officials—led by state Attorney General Xavier Becerra—are asking a federal judge to block Donald Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program until the court can rule on a pending lawsuit:
The motion — filed by Becerra, the University of California, Santa Clara County and the city of San Jose, among others — asks the Northern District of California to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump Administration’s rescission of DACA while the trial is pending. It’s the latest in a months-long battle between the Trump Administration and DACA supporters to determine the future of the controversial program.
“America is and has been home to the Dreamers who courageously came forward and applied for DACA,” said Becerra in a statement Wednesday. “They have done everything our government has asked of them. They followed the rules directed by DACA, they succeeded in school, at work and in business, and they have contributed in building a better America. They epitomize the American Dream.”
California is home to the largest population of DACA recipients in the nation. If Congress is unable to pass a clean DREAM Act by the March 5, 2018 deadline set up by the Trump administration, some 200,000 DACA recipients in the state stand to lose their work permits and be at risk of being torn from the only country they’ve ever known as home. From California’s motion:
“The Rescission already is causing catastrophic and irreparable harm to DACA recipients, as the threat of deportation—to countries where they have not lived since they were children—forces them to make wrenching choices whether to leave their schools, jobs, and even their U.S. citizen children and other family members.”
Think Progress found that nearly 40,000 Dreamers already lost their DACA protections because they were not able to file by the government’s arbitrary October 5, 2017 deadline. Further research finds that 1,400 DACA recipients nationally will lose their protections every single day if Congress doesn’t pass the DREAM Act. There is a fierce urgency to pass it by December, and advocates are planning a November 9 day of action in support of the legislation.