A group of law scholars is calling on President Donald Trump to keep the deferred action program, currently protecting hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children from the threat of deportation, and has outlined a legal argument for why it should be maintained.
On Monday, around 100 immigration attorneys and law professors will send an open letter to the President. It argues that he has the legal authority to keep the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), created via executive action by President Barack Obama, in 2012. The letter demonstrates why the program is legal, according to University of Houston Law Center professor, Michael Olivas.
Olivas says the program has been very successful and that the letter explains why it is legal and not unconstitutional, as some critics have suggested. The President is able to give some immigrants, such as young DACA recipients, temporary protective status after a ruling from federal courts, but the Trump administration has not yet decided on the fate of the program.
The Trump administration has been urged to begin phasing out the program by several Republican state attorney generals. Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, is among a group threatening to challenge the program in court if it is not discontinued. But, 20 attorney generals from the Democratic Party are calling on the President to maintain the deferred action.