Attorney General Ken Paxton today applauded President Trump’s decision to revoke a 2014 Obama-era policy memo that created the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) program. Former President Obama’s unlawful action was intended to grant five million illegal aliens in the U.S. lawful-presence status and allow them to apply for work permits.
In early 2015, Attorney General Paxton led a 26-state coalition lawsuit against the Obama administration that succeeded in putting DAPA on hold as the case worked its way through the courts. Following a win in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Texas, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s decision. Ultimately, Texas handed President Obama his biggest court defeat of all when his unilateral immigration policies were blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court last June.
“I applaud President Trump for acknowledging what President Obama himself acknowledged over 20 times – the Obama Administration’s DAPA immigration edict was a violation of law and the separation of powers. I am proud to have led a 26-state coalition that went all the way to the Supreme Court to block this unlawful edict.”
To view the Department of Homeland Security’s recession of memorandum providing for DAPA, click here.