20 attorneys general urge Trump to defend DACA
Letter comes after 10 states threaten lawsuit over Obama-era program
LOS ANGELES — California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and 19 of his counterparts from across the country sent President Donald Trump a letter Friday urging his administration not to touch an Obamaera policy that shields as many as 750,000 young immigrants from deportation.
The letter comes a month after Texas and nine other states threatened to sue the Trump administration if President Barack Obama’s landmark Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals was not scrapped.
“We urge you to affirm America’s values and tradition as a nation of immigrants and make clear that you will not only continue DACA, but that you will defend it,” the attorneys general wrote. “The cost of not doing so would be too high for America, the economy, and for these young people.”
Becerra was met with cheers at California State University at Los Angeles when he told a crowd of students — including some DACA recipients — that he thought the program would survive the legal challenges it could face in the future.
“It has been a great boon for the California and American economy to have the ‘Dreamers’ come out of the shadows and so we are here to say we stand with them because they are working for us,” he said.
Becerra’s statements come after Trump and his administration have sent mixed messages about the future of the program, leaving many on both sides of the immigration debate frustrated.
The president has said DACA is “one of the most difficult subjects” he faces because there are “incredible kids.”
Becerra, a former congressman who was appointed to be California’s top law enforcement official after Kamala Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate, was joined by his newly elected successor Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif.
Gomez, just two weeks into his new job, told the group of students Friday that he was looking into using his position on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to call for hearings on the Department of Homeland Security’s enforcement actions.
“Are they really going after DACA recipients and ‘Dreamers’? We are going to try and put them on the witness stand and really push on that,” he said.
“A lot of times the Trump administration says one thing and then they do something else over here so we have to show people what they are actually doing over here,” Gomez added. “So that is an idea we are kicking around in my office.”
Melody Klingenfuss, an organizer with Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights Los Angeles who came to the U.S. from Guatemala at age 9, is among the DACA recipients.
She was pleased Becerra was taking a stance Friday.
“Having a public face to defend dreamers and who believes in the contributions we have made to this country is key,” she said. “We still have a long fight ahead of us.”
Aside from California, the other attorneys general who signed the letter are from Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington state.