AUSTIN, TX – A federal judge in Brownsville, Texas has ordered that the federal government provide him the names and addresses of over 100,000 recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in Texas v. United States, the pivotal case challenging the constitutionality of President Obama's executive actions on immigration. The order also indicates that the judge may later release this private information to the plaintiff States in the case.
MALDEF represents three mothers from South Texas who are the only non-governmental parties in the case. The three mothers seek to defend the 2014 immigration initiatives which include Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) and an expansion of DACA.
Although his preliminary injunction barring implementation of the 2014 immigration initiatives is currently being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Andrew Hanen issued his order as a sanction against the United States government for alleged misconduct in the case.
“Whatever misconduct the United States and its lawyers may have committed does not warrant imposing on thousands of immigrants the fear of disclosure and the actual threat of being targeted by states whose hostility to DAPA and DACA is epitomized by their participation in this suit,” stated Thomas A. Saenz, MALDEF President and General Counsel. “We expect to take action in court to prevent private information submitted in good faith to the federal government from being released to hostile parties.”
“The thousands of young people who properly renewed their DACA last year did nothing wrong and should not be punished for the acts of others,” stated Nina Perales, Vice President of Litigation. “If the judge believes that the federal government acted wrongly in court, he should hold those individuals responsible, not DACA recipients,” continued Perales.