The Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, has filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the Trump Administration's plan to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), as reported by KRLD Radio. AG Paxton says 12 other states have signed onto his brief. In a statement about the issue, AG Paxton said:
The DACA program was a lawless exercise of executive power, and the Trump administration’s decision to rescind DACA was absolutely necessary to uphold the rule of law. By creating DACA and DAPA, the Obama administration attempted to bypass Congress and unilaterally amend our immigration laws. The President’s duty is to ensure that the law is faithfully executed, not to unilaterally re-write the law anytime the President disagrees with Congress’ decision.
DACA was created in 2012. In 2017, the Trump Administration announced it would end the program. An appeals court ruled the administration had violated the Administrative Procedure Act, calling the decision to end DACA "arbitrary and capricious." Last year, another appeals court ruled DACA would stay in place as the case works through the system. The majority opinion said, "Hundreds of thousands of people had structured their lives on the availability of deferred action during the five years between the implementation of DACA and the decision to rescind."
Paxton says Texas spends $250 million a year on health care, education and law enforcement for non-citizens. He says DACA puts "undue financial strain" on states. The brief says only Congress has the authority to grant lawful status to an entire class of aliens. Paxton says DACA "unilaterally granted lawful presence and work permits to over 1.7 million unlawfully-present aliens in defiance of laws enacted by Congress."
