Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and six other states are suing the Trump administration over the program that protects thousands of young undocumented immigrants.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, has been a flashpoint since the Obama administration. Last week, a federal judge in California barred the president from taking action to rescind the DACA program and ordered more to register for DACA protections.

The battle lines have been drawn over DACA. Texas and six other states are now suing to force a once-and-for-all end to the program that would protect some young immigrants from deportation. Estimates put the number at 700,000 nationwide.

“The danger DACA poses goes far beyond our own immigration system,” Paxton said during a Tuesday press conference. “Left intact, DACA sets a dangerous precedent by giving the executive branch sweeping authority to ignore the laws enacted by Congress and change our nation’s immigration laws to suit a president’s own preferences.”

While the lawsuit is against the Trump administration, it is a lawsuit in support of the president’s attempts to end DACA.

“My frustration is with three federal judges in the country, from D.C. to New York and I think the other one is in California, who have basically ordered the stopping of the rescinding of DACA,” Paxton said.


Dallas immigration attorney Sasha Moreno says the lawsuit is all show and very upsetting.

“This is Texas, where we have a good majority of our population that are immigrants or second generation,” she said. “Ultimately, I think it’s going to be up to the supreme court to take it. I know they decided not to in February, But I think with all the pending lawsuits all across the U.S., they’re going to have to take it eventually.”

It is also what Paxton wants. He says he won a challenge to another immigration program very similar to DACA at the highest court in the land.

“Our coalition is confident that ultimately through our federal lawsuit DACA will meet the very same fate,” he said.

That was a program for a way to stay in the U.S. for certain illegal immigrant parents who had been here since 2010 with children who were American citizens or lawful permanent residents.

The multi-state lawsuit was filed on Tuesday. Joining Texas in the lawsuit are Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina and West Virginia.