MALDEF STATEMENT ON LAWSUIT LED BY TEXAS CHALLENGING DACA INITIATIVE

MALDEF

May 1, 2018

Los Angeles, CA - Please attribute the following statement in response to a lawsuit filed by Texas and six other states challenging the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative to Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund):

"Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton cannot seem to get his timing right. The infamous premature litigator, who notoriously – and unsuccessfully – attempted to defend Texas SB 4 by filing a frivolous ‘preemptive’ lawsuit against MALDEF among other improper defendants, has now filed an extremely late challenge to the constitutionality of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Today's filing by seven retrograde states comes nearly six years after DACA was introduced and many weeks after three other federal courts began to order that the DACA initiative continue despite Donald Trump's attempt to end it.

With a federal attorney general who erroneously and precipitously advised Trump that DACA is unlawful, today's lawsuit is plainly collusive between two attorneys general each egregiously ignorant of the law.

Plainly, Paxton and Sessions require serious intervention to correct their seemingly shared dysfunction with the law. MALDEF is confident that such intervention will occur."

Founded in 1968, MALDEF is the nation's leading Latino legal civil rights organization. Often described as the "Latino Legal Voice for Civil Rights in America" MALDEF promotes social change through advocacy, communications, community education, and litigation in the areas of education, employment, immigrant rights, and political access. For more information on MALDEF, please visit: www.maldef.org.