Story highlights Napolitano was the homeland security secretary that created DACA

UC joins states and an individual in suing over Trump's move

"Dreamers face expulsion from the only country that they call home, based on nothing more than unreasoned executive whim"

Washington (CNN) The University of California sued the Trump administration on Friday over its decision to end DACA -- setting up a court clash between the former secretary who helped create the program and the President who declared its demise.

Janet Napolitano is the president of the UC school system -- and was the homeland security secretary in 2012 who established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that has protected nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants from deportation and gave them the ability to work and study in the US.

Now, the university and its president are joining the legal battle to try to save that very program, arguing that President Donald Trump's decision Tuesday to end it failed to follow procedures mandated by law and violated constitutional due process rights.

"Dreamers face expulsion from the only country that they call home based on nothing more than unreasoned executive whim," the lawsuit argues. "It is hard to imagine a decision less reasoned, more damaging, or undertaken with less care."

Napolitano foreshadowed the move earlier this week, when the Trump administration announced it would stop allowing new applications to DACA and allow a six-month window for renewals before letting permits expire beginning March 6, 2018.

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