On Friday, the University of California (UC) sued the Trump administration for the end of the DACA immigration program, which protects about 800,000 youth from deportation and leaves work permits nationwide, of which more than 200,000 are in this state.
The complaint was filed by Janet Napolitano, former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, who is now the president of this academic campus where some 4,000 undocumented students study, many of whom are benefiting from this immigration relief.
On Tuesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that they will complete the DACA program approved in 2012 by then-President Barack Obama, although the suspension will be gradual and final for up to six months, a period that Congress has to find an option to regulate the situation of dreamers.
UC, a system that trains about 240,000 students in ten statewide campuses, announced in a statement that it filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration because it believes that it violates the “unconstitutional” rights of the educational institution and of their students.
The complaint filed in federal court in California was signed by UC President Janet Napolitano, who served as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from 2009 to 2013 and encouraged the creation of DACA in 2012.
Precisely, the UC claim is directed against the Department of Homeland Security and its current incumbent, Secretary Elaine Duke.
“Neither I nor the UC took the step of denouncing the federal government, especially the agency I led,” Napolitano said.
“It is imperative, however, that we stand up for these vital members of the UC community. They represent the best of what we are: hardworking, resilient and motivated winners,” he added.
Napolitano said that ending the DACA program “in an arbitrary and capricious way” is not only “illegal” but “contrary” to US national values.
The text of the complaint claims that, as a consequence of the end of DACA, dreamers risk expulsion from the only place they have “called home” because of “nothing more than an executive whim without reasoning.”
UC states that revoking DACA violates established administrative procedures, as well as protection of due process of law under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.
The university explained that in its classrooms there are approximately 4,000 undocumented students, of whom “a significant number” has benefited from DACA.
In addition, the educational institution added that its staff also have researchers and teachers who took part in the DACA plan.