A group of 16 states and the District of Columbia filed their lawsuit about Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (or DACA) program on Wednesday, and for those who’ve followed immigration saga since 2012, there is a familiar tune.
Eric T. Schneiderman, Attorney General of New York, is suing on behalf of the group, and two of the constitutional violations alleged involve the Administrative Procedure Act. The APA was also a central part of a 2015 federal court order that blocked an Obama administration program that sought to delay deportations of 4 million undocumented parents from going into effect.
At the time, Judge Andrew Hanen said that President Obama’s orders to establish the broader program had violated the notice-and-comment requirements of the APA. Hanen’s ruling remained in effect and was upheld by the Supreme Court in a split vote.
Now, Schneiderman is listing APA violations in two of the five causes of action in the lawsuit. In one instance, he claims the Trump administration’s decision to end the DACA program without a detailed plan “is arbitrary, unconstitutional, and contrary to statute” because it contains “minimal formal guidance.” In another instance, Schneiderman says the move “changed the substantive criteria by which individuals DACA grantees work, live, attend school, obtain credit, and travel in the United States” and as a rule, the decision was subject to a notice-and-comment period.
Two other allegations allege the DACA recession announcement violated due process and equal protection rights under the Fifth Amendment.
On Tuesday night, another lawsuit was filed about the DACA decision in a federal trial court in Brooklyn, N.Y. Martin Jonathan Batalla Vidal of Queens, New York, had already filed a lawsuit about a year ago in an attempt to limit the nationwide reach of Hanen’s order. The current suit was amended to focus on Trump’s DACA order.
Batalla Vidal’s attorneys are arguing that the Trump decision is a switch in policy position that has not been justified and subject the APA provisions. His lawyers also believe ending of DACA is a violation of due process guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Tuesday that the Trump administration will end the DACA program in early March 2018, leaving its ultimate fate to Congress or the court system.
Sessions said the action was made to counter what he felt were unconstitutional actions by the Obama administration to enact a program that was best left to Congress.
