Trump gets thumbs up from Texas AG Ken Paxton for scrapping DACA

Legal
Sept. 5, 2017, 2:49 p.m.

Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton applauds Trump for scrapping DACA

Ann M. Simmons

Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton on Tuesday praised President Trump’s decision to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that gave protection from deportation and work permits to more than 800,000 immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children.

Paxton described the program, commonly known as DACA, as “unlawful” because former President Obama created it in 2012 without congressional authorization.

“The Obama-era program went far beyond the executive branch’s legitimate authority,” Paxton said in a statement.

On June 29, Paxton was among nine state attorneys general and one governor who co-signed a letter to the Trump administration setting a Sept. 5 deadline to phase out DACA or face the coalition’s challenge to the program in court.

“I applaud President Trump for phasing out DACA,” 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.”

The program targets young people — sometimes called Dreamers — who arrived in the U.S. before they were 16 years old and were under the age of 31 as of June 2012. It also requires continuous residence in the U.S. since 2007.

Those who qualified for the program were granted two-year renewable work permits.

Paxton also led a U.S. Supreme Court challenge, filed by 26 states, to an expanded program known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, introduced by Obama in November 2014. The so-called DAPA expansion sought to shield certain immigrants who have lived in the United States illegally since 2010 and grant them three-year renewable work permits.

In February 2015, the Supreme Court issued a preliminary injunction temporarily halting that program from going into effect, and in June the Trump administration announced that the program would not be implemented.