Fifteen states and the District of Columbia sued Wednesday to block President Donald Trump's plan to end a program protecting young immigrants from deportation — an act Washington state's attorney general called part of a "dark time for our country."

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Brooklyn asked a judge to conclude that the president's action involving the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, is unconstitutional.

It called the move "a culmination of President Trump's oft-stated commitments ... to punish and disparage people with Mexican roots."

Rescinding DACA will also injure state-run colleges and universities, upset workplaces and damage companies and economies that include immigrants covered under the program, the lawsuit says.

"The consequence of the president's animus-driven decision is that approximately 800,000 persons who have availed themselves of the program will ultimately lose its protections" and be exposed to deportation, the lawsuit says.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday the program will end in six months so Congress can have time to find a legislative solution for the people in the program, who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or came with families who overstayed visas.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are New York, Massachusetts, Washington, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia.

California, one of the most solid Democratic states, was noticeably absent.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra plans to file a separate lawsuit because a quarter of DACA recipients are California residents, his spokeswoman Bethany Lesser said.

Becerra's office has not said when the lawsuit will be filed or whether it will include different legal arguments.

Under the move by Trump, people already enrolled in DACA remain covered until their permits expire. If that happens before March 5, they are eligible to renew them for another two years as long as they apply by Oct. 5. But the program isn't accepting new applications.

Opponents of the program said they are pleased with the Trump administration's decision. They called DACA an unconstitutional abuse of executive power.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson, both Democrats, called Trump's action cruel and outrageous, given that the decision was announced by Sessions rather than the president himself.

A half-dozen beneficiaries of DACA — young adults from Mexico, Venezuela, Peru and elsewhere, including some now working at law firms or for the state Legislature — flanked Inslee and Ferguson at a news conference in Seattle announcing the lawsuit.

"It's outrageous, it's not right," an emotional Ferguson said. "As attorney general for the state of Washington, I have a hammer, it's the law."

Inslee said, "This is one more of a long train of abuses that this president has attempted to foist on this great nation."

Earlier this year, Ferguson sued Trump over his travel ban, prompting a federal judge to block nationwide enforcement. </s> Fifteen states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit here Wednesday challenging President Trump's plan to end a program protecting young immigrants from deportation.

The suit was first announced by Washington state Atty. Gen. Bob Ferguson, who called Trump's act “a dark time for our country.”

Plaintiffs include New York, Massachusetts, Washington, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia

On Tuesday, U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, will end in six months, giving Congress time to find a legislative solution for the immigrants.

The participants were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or came with families who overstayed visas. </s> Fifteen states and the District of Columbia on sued Wednesday to block President Donald Trump's plan to end a program protecting young immigrants from deportation — an act Washington state's attorney general called "a dark time for our country."

The lawsuit was filed in the Eastern District of New York. The plaintiffs were New York, Massachusetts, Washington, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia.

On Tuesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said a program, known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA, will end in six months to give Congress time to find a legislative solution for the immigrants.

The participants were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or came with families who overstayed visas.

Those already enrolled in DACA remain covered until their permits expire. If their permits expire before March, 5, 2018, they are eligible to renew them for another two years as long as they apply by Oct. 5. But the program isn't accepting new applications.

Opponents of the program said they are pleased with the Trump administration's decision. They called DACA an unconstitutional abuse of executive power but proponents of the program said the move by Trump was cruel.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said the action violates the due process rights of the immigrants. He said he fears the information the immigrants provided the government to participate in DACA could be used against them.

"It's outrageous, it's not right," an emotional Ferguson said at a news conference in Seattle. "As attorney general for the state of Washington, I have a hammer, it's the law."

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee joined Ferguson at the news conference and said "this is one more of a long train of abuses that this president has attempted to foist on this great nation."

Earlier this year, Ferguson sued Trump over the initial travel ban, which resulted in a federal judge blocking nationwide enforcement. </s> LOS ANGELES — The University of California and its president, a former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, on Friday filed suit challenging President Donald Trump’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, claiming it violates due process provisions of the Constitution.

The lawsuit comes two days after 15 states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration over the order, which affects thousands of undocumented people brought the country illegally as children.

The University of California and its president, Janet Napolitano, said the lawsuit was the first to be filed by a university.

“Neither I, nor the University of California, take the step of suing the federal government lightly, especially not the very agency that I led,” Napolitano, a former Arizona governor and Obama-era secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said in a prepared statement. “It is imperative, however, that we stand up for these vital members of the UC community. They represent the best of who we are — hard working, resilient and motivated high achievers. To arbitrarily and capriciously end the DACA program, which benefits our country as a whole, is not only unlawful, it is contrary to our national values and bad policy.”

California’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, has said he also plans to file suit against the administration. California was not among the earlier states to file suit.

The University of California said it has about 4,000 students who are undocumented, “a substantial number of whom have DACA.” Immigration is a major issue in heavily Democratic California, where the UC allows so-called Dreamers to pay in-state tuition and offers legal services to undocumented students. </s> The University of California has sued the Trump administration over its decision to end a program protecting hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation.The lawsuit filed on Friday in federal court in San Francisco includes university president Janet Napolitano as a plaintiff.Napolitano was Homeland Security secretary under the Obama administration and helped implement its Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.The program protected about 800,000 people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or came with families who overstayed visas.The lawsuit says the university will lose students and employees because of President Donald Trump's decision to end the program.An email sent to the U.S. Department of Justice seeking comment was not immediately returned.Fifteen states have sued separately over the president's decision. </s> DES MOINES, Iowa — Attorney General Tom Miller on Wednesday joined 15 other attorneys general in filing a federal lawsuit against President Trump’s decision to rescind protections for undocumented immigrants protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA.

The program, instituted by an executive order by President Barack Obama, protects thousands of immigrants from deportation. To be eligible for the protection an immigrant must have been brought to the US when they were 16 or younger and lived here before 2007.

On Tuesday the Trump administration announced the program would end in six months and challenged Congress to take action to address those covered under the program, known as “Dreamers.”

“DACA has protected hundreds of thousands of young people, including nearly 2,800 here in Iowa, who arrived illegally as children, grew up following the rules, and are very much a part of our fabric,” Attorney General Tom Miller said in a statement Wednesday, “Our lawsuit alleges the Trump administration’s action to dismantle DACA violates peoples’ due process, denies them equal protection under our constitution, and causes ‘immediate harm’ to those whom DACA is intended to protect.”

In the last five years the US government has approved protection from deportation under DACA for more than 800,000 immigrants. </s> A federal judge in California ordered the Trump administration on Tuesday to keep in place the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects undocumented immigrants who entered the country as children from deportation and allows them to work legally, while a lawsuit proceeds.

The order, signed by U.S. District Judge Williams Alsup, marks a major triumph for immigrant rights groups who have rallied around the program that benefits nearly 700,000 people.

The preliminary injunction on Trump’s cancellation of DACA requires the Department of Homeland Security “to maintain the DACA program on a nationwide basis on the same terms and conditions as were in effect before the rescission on September 5, 2017” ― including allowing those who already benefit from DACA to apply to renew their status.

The order does not, however, allow people who have never held DACA protections to apply as new applicants.

“Dreamers’ lives were thrown into chaos when the Trump administration tried to terminate the DACA program without obeying the law,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) said in a statement. “Today’s ruling is a huge step in the right direction.

The Trump administration “looks forward to vindicating its position in further litigation,” Justice Department spokesman Devin O’Malley said in a statement.

“Tonight’s order doesn’t change the Department of Justice’s position on the facts,” the statement said. “DACA was implemented unilaterally after Congress declined to extend these benefits to this same group of illegal aliens.”

Before the order, the program was scheduled to begin phasing out on March 5.

Alsup is presiding over five lawsuits challenging the legality of Trump’s termination of DACA that were consolidated into one in the Northern District of California. The state of California, the Regents of the University of California, the city of San José and several DACA recipients are among those suing in an attempt to preserve the program.

The lawsuits argue that the White House flouted the process for terminating the program in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and that the cancellation was based on flawed legal logic.

The Obama administration used executive action to create the DACA program in 2012, allowing undocumented immigrants who arrived as children or young teenagers to apply to work legally in the country and avoid deportation for a renewable two-year period.

The Trump administration announced in September, however, that it would cancel the program, citing a threat from a coalition of 10 states, led by Texas, to challenge the program’s constitutionality. </s> The University of California sued the Trump administration Friday over its decision to end a program protecting hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation.The lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco includes university president Janet Napolitano as a plaintiff.Napolitano was Homeland Security secretary under the Obama administration and helped implement its Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.She said it was important for the public university system to "stand up for these vital members of the UC community.""They represent the best of who we are - hard-working, resilient and motivated high achievers. To arbitrarily and capriciously end the DACA program, which benefits our country as a whole, is not only unlawful, it is contrary to our national values and bad policy," Napolitano said.The program protected about 800,000 people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or came with families who overstayed visas, including hundreds of thousands of college-age students.The lawsuit said the university will lose students and employees because of President Donald Trump's decision to end the program.The UC system has about 4,000 students who are in the United States illegally, "a substantial number of whom have DACA, as well as teachers, researchers and health care providers who are DACA recipients," the university system said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.An email sent to the U.S. Department of Justice seeking comment was not immediately returned.Fifteen states have sued separately over the president's decision. </s> Docmary Reyes, 21, left, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient on her way to the University of California, Davis, joins supporters of the DACA program during a protest in Los Angeles. | Richard Vogel/AP Photo UC system files suit over DACA

LOS ANGELES — The University of California and its president, a former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, on Friday filed suit challenging President Donald Trump’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, claiming it violates due process provisions of the Constitution.

The lawsuit comes two days after 15 states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration over the order, which affects thousands of undocumented people brought the country illegally as children.

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The University of California and its president, Janet Napolitano, said the lawsuit was the first to be filed by a university.

“Neither I, nor the University of California, take the step of suing the federal government lightly, especially not the very agency that I led,” Napolitano, a former Arizona governor and Obama-era secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said in a prepared statement. “It is imperative, however, that we stand up for these vital members of the UC community. They represent the best of who we are — hard working, resilient and motivated high achievers. To arbitrarily and capriciously end the DACA program, which benefits our country as a whole, is not only unlawful, it is contrary to our national values and bad policy.”

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California’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, has said he also plans to file suit against the administration. California was not among the earlier states to file suit.

The University of California said it has about 4,000 students who are undocumented, “a substantial number of whom have DACA.” Immigration is a major issue in heavily Democratic California, where the UC allows so-called Dreamers to pay in-state tuition and offers legal services to undocumented students.
Fifteen states sue the Trump administration over potential violations of the Due Process Clause as a result of actions concerning the rescindment of the DACA program.