A coalition of state attorneys general has become the latest to challenge the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to decimate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. “Following the coalition’s successful defense of DACA, the case is once again before the trial court and now focused on the Trump administration’s most recent attacks,” California’s Xavier Becerra said in a statement.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that impeached president Donald Trump unlawfully ended the program, which should have led to its full reinstatement (a federal court in Maryland the next month said the same). Instead, he’s defied the court and further escalated his attacks. Like another suit filed in September by a top advocacy group, the states argue in part that the changes are unlawful because acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Chad Wolf, who is unlawfully serving in his job, has no legal authority to do so.
“Despite the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision finding the Trump administration’s attempt to rescind DACA to be unlawful, the federal government has continued to take steps to diminish protections granted to Dreamers who were brought to the United States as children,” Becerra said in the complaint, joined by Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
The changes that the unlawfully appointed acting secretary ordered include reducing the duration of protections from two years to just one and the outright rejection of any new applicants, as well as the denial of advance parole, which in the past allowed DACA recipients to be able to travel outside of the U.S. and safely return.
“Ultimately, the unlawful changes directly harm Dreamers and threaten to rob them of opportunities to give back to their communities, including for the roughly 29,000 doctors, nurses, dentists, physician assistants, and other healthcare workers who have benefitted from DACA and are on the front lines confronting the ongoing pandemic every day,” Becerra continued.
A lawsuit filed by Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and others in September also challenged Unlawful Chad’s authority, saying he “has no legal authority to upend the lives of hundreds of thousands Dreamers living, learning, and working in the country that they call home.”
“The Trump administration’s irresponsible governance has consequences under our Constitution and statutes,” MALDEF president and general counsel, Thomas A. Saenz, said at the time. “Trump’s refusal to nominate candidates to lead the Department of Homeland Security—even when his own party controls the Senate that must confirm such appointments—means that the punitive Wolf memorandum was unlawfully issued.”
But Unlawful Chad has never cared much about the law or rules especially of late, basically using his government office to campaign for his boss’ reelection in states including Arizona and Texas. Hmm, wonder why those states right now. They may not care, but it hasn’t gone unnoticed: following a request from independent federal watchdog American Oversight this week, the chief of Office of Special Counsel’s Hatch Act unit has agreed to open a probe into top DHS officials’ shameless campaigning.
We’ve also noticed, and we also care. On this final day of voting across the country, remember that Democratic wins won’t just mean sweeping Trump out of office. It’ll also mean sweeping out his army of corrupt lackeys and protecting programs that protect families everywhere.