The filing in Federal District Court in Brooklyn was the Trump administration’s first real attack on the lawsuits that are trying to reverse its decision in September to wind down DACA, or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a policy that permits some 800,000 young immigrants to live and work in the country legally.
After Attorney General Jeff Sessions made the announcement about ending DACA, a coalition of immigration lawyers and 16 Democratic state attorneys general filed separate suits in Brooklyn, charging that repealing the program was an illegally “arbitrary” act that showed an unconstitutional “animus” toward Latinos. The plaintiffs also argued that the government had violated the due process rights of the immigrants, who are commonly known as Dreamers, by failing to give them notice that DACA was coming to an end.
In its motion to dismiss the cases, the Justice Department said that because DACA was an executive action put in place without the force of legislation, Trump officials not only have the power to rescind it, but also that their decision was “presumed immune from judicial review.” The executive branch, the motion added, has a “particularly unfettered” power when it comes to immigration
