DACA on Chopping Block in Texas

 

IRLI, congressmen show program is unlawful

 

WASHINGTON—The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), on behalf of Representatives Steve King of Iowa and Paul A. Gosar of Arizona, has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in support of Texas and other states suing to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA). The court had asked for renewed summary judgment briefing on the question of whether DACA is lawful, especially in light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision blocking the Trump administration’s rescission of DACA.

 

In its brief for the congressmen, IRLI shows that DACA is unlawful in a number of respects; for example, it represents a systemic, programmatic failure to carry out the executive’s constitutional duty to take care that the nation’s laws be faithfully executed. Turning to the recent Supreme Court decision, IRLI points out that the Court, in the majority opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts, actually held that DACA is a substantive rule. That holding dooms DACA, because a court must vacate substantive rules that did not go through the notice and comment process, and it is undisputed that DACA never went through that process.  

 

“At long last, the question of DACA’s lawfulness or unlawfulness is up for decision in federal court,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI. “The Supreme Court went out of its way to avoid that question in its recent decision, but it is of great importance for the rule of law. It is Congress, not the executive acting alone, that has the authority under the Constitution to legalize illegal aliens, and we hope the court makes that clear.”

 

The case is Texas v. DHS, No. 1:18-cv-0068 (S.D. Tex.).

 

For additional information, contact: Brian Lonergan • 202-232-5590 • [email protected]