Attorney General Mark Herring joined a coalition of 16 attorneys general Monday in filing a brief with the United States Supreme Court in the coalition’s ongoing lawsuit to protect Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
The lawsuit, that was originally filed in September 2017 and will be heard by the Supreme Court this fall, argues that the Trump Administration’s attempt to revoke DACA was based on a faulty legal analysis and harmed State residents, institutions, and economies.
“Virginia is home to more than 12,000 DREAMers who have become valued members of our institutions of higher education, our communities, and our economies,” said Herring. “No good can come out of ending DACA. It will tear families apart, hurt Virginia’s economy, and most importantly turn our back on these promising, talented young people who have made this country their home and only want to make it a better place. I want to be very clear that I will continue to defend DREAMers in court and do all I can to make sure that they do not have to continue to live in fear of deportation.”
In September 2017, Herring and his colleagues filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York challenging the Trump Administration’s decision to terminate DACA. In February 2018, the coalition was successful in securing a nationwide preliminary injunction that halted DACA’s termination. The United States Supreme Court will hear the case, together with parallel challenges to DACA’s termination filed in federal courts in California and the District of Columbia.
More than 12,000 young people in Virginia have been approved for DACA according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. These young people are now in school or working in Virginia and it is estimated that removing them from the workforce would cost Virginia more than $711 million in annual GDP losses.
Since 2012, DACA has allowed approximately 800,000 young people who came to this country as children and lack legal status to live, study, and work in the U.S. without fear of arrest or deportation.
Joining Herring in filing this brief and the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the Governor of Colorado.
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