The Texas attorney general is suing the federal government, asking a federal court in South Texas to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA program.
DACA provides a pathway for citizenship for anyone brought into the country illegally by their parents.
Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general, said the program, created by the Obama administration, was not created by Congress and therefore should be declared unconstitutional.
“The constitution guarantees the American people to set their own immigration policies through their representatives in Congress. The federal executive branch lacks the power to unilaterally grant unlawfully aliens lawful presence and work authorization,” Paxton said.
Paxton filed the lawsuit on behalf of seven states — Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina and West Virginia — with the federal court in Brownsville.
Paxton hopes the DACA program will meet the same fate as the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program, which was originally blocked by a Brownsville federal judge in 2015 and later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court that same year.
Ryan Poppe can be reached at rpoppe@tpr.org or on Twitter @RyanPoppe1
