Texas Border Business
AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton today applauded President Trump’s decision to phase out the unlawful 2012 Obama-era policy memo that created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA granted lawful presence and work permits to nearly one million unlawfully present aliens without Congressional authorization.
On June 29, Attorney General Paxton sent a letter – co-signed by nine state attorneys general and one governor – to the Trump administration, giving it until September 5 to phase out DACA or the coalition would challenge the program in court.
“I applaud President Trump for phasing out DACA. As the Texas-led coalition explained in our June letter, the Obama-era program went far beyond the executive branch’s legitimate authority,” Attorney General Paxton said. “Had former President Obama’s unilateral order on DACA been left intact, it would have set a dangerous precedent by giving the executive branch sweeping authority to bypass Congress and change immigration laws. If ever there were a violation of the President’s duty to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,’ DACA was it: President Obama unilaterally conferred lawful presence and work authorization, and then President Obama used that lawful-presence dispensation to unilaterally confer U.S. citizenship.”
Texas has a proven track record in protecting liberty and taking on abuse of federal power. When former President Obama sought to grant lawful presence to more than four million unlawfully present aliens, Attorney General Paxton led a 26-state coalition all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his unlawful immigration plan, known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA).
View the Department of Homeland Security’s recession of memorandum providing for DACA here: https://bit.ly/2xLZaNi
View the Texas-led 10-state coalition letter here: https://bit.ly/2srpgkW
