Trump administration files motion to dismiss Princeton’s DACA lawsuit
Princeton must respond by December 15
The Department of Homeland Security filed a motion last week to dismiss the lawsuit Princeton University, a Princeton undergraduate and Microsoft Corp. had filed to protect the DACA program.
“Even if Plaintiffs’ challenge were somehow justiciable, the assumption underlying it would compel dismissal,” the DHS claimed in the motion, which was filed November 22. “This case should be dismissed.”
The DHS argued that the Princeton's legal argument did not hold water. Princeton and Microsoft did not even have the legal standing necessary to bring the lawsuit, the motion claimed, since they are not people and will not be directly affected by the end of DACA.
“The unavoidable reality that any enforcement of immigration laws will inevitably have some unintended or derivative effects does not provide carte blanche to challenge such enforcement decisions whenever there is a disagreement about federal immigration policy,” the DHS claimed.
Princeton and the other plaintiffs filed the suit earlier this month in Washington, D.C. district court, claiming that the Trump administration had violated federal law and the Constitution by ending the Obama administration’s DACA policy.
The DACA program, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, allowed undocumented immigrants who came to the country as minors and fulfilled other requirements to obtain protection from deportation. The Trump administration announced in September that the program would be phased out, although President Trump called on Congress to pass DACA as a law.
Princeton and the other plaintiffs are required to file a response to the motion to dismiss by December 15. A motion on preliminary matters in the case will be held on January 31 in the district courthouse in Washington.