Arizona ‘Dreamers’ could join DACA lawsuit against Trump
Sep 19, 2017, 3:00 PM
(AP Photo)
PHOENIX — Six California immigrants have sued President Donald Trump for rescinding DACA, and KTAR legal analyst Monica Lindstrom said “Dreamers” in Arizona could join the lawsuit.
“This lawsuit does have merit, it contains a lot of constitutional questions as well as just public policy questions,” Lindstrom said.
“And it’s time the courts start deciding what’s going to happen with DACA because clearly the politicians can’t figure it out.”
The lawsuit asked a court to decide if Trump ended Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals improperly, but Lindstrom said it also raised questions as to whether the Obama administration properly implemented the controversial program.
“Basically, they’re saying, ‘look it’s not fair when the federal government makes enforcement promises to a group of people,’ in other words,‘we’re not going to deport you,’” she said. “And then when those people rely on those promises, then the administration turns around and revokes them.
“That violates due process and they believe that it’s unconstitutional.”
The lawsuit also claimed Trump’s decision was racially motivated.
“It is possible that the court will find that there is merit in that argument,” Lindstrom said.
“Because Trump has gone on record when he was campaigning saying how he believed illegal immigrants are problems and that they’re not great people.”
That could lead the court to find Trump’s decision to end DACA was racially motivated and that the president didn’t follow the law equally and unbiased.
“And the court could find that Trump’s decision to rescind DACA is motivated by racial discrimination and that is unconstitutional,” Lindstrom said.
If the court decides the president did not follow proper legal procedure in rescinding DACA, Trump would have to decide if he wanted to redo the process properly.
“By the time he did that it could be that Congress actually puts something in place to save the program,” Lindstrom said.
“I think we’re going to see a lot of lawsuits coming off of this and we’ll see some in Arizona as well.”