LANSING, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is joining with several states in filing a brief in the lawsuit against the federal government’s unlawful rescission of the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
According to an official press release, this decision could put 669,000 undocumented young people who came to the U.S. as children at risk for deportation.
The press release notes that the case Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of University of California, et. al., argues that allowing these individuals to participate in American society generates significant positive impacts for not only the individual states, but the nation as a whole.
“Michigan is home to approximately 13,000 residents eligible for deferred action under the DACA program and these hard-working Michiganders paid more than $23 million in state and local taxes according to a September report from the Center for American Progress,” Nessel said in the press release. “I joined in filing this brief because the thought of their protections disappearing is unconscionable and would have significant and adverse effects on our economy, but more importantly it would rob so many of them of the only life they know—a life in America.”
The DACA program allows recipients (or “Dreamers”) to go to work or school and live without fear of deportation while pursuing their dreams. Dreamers are often students and teachers, military service members, law enforcement officers, and other public service workers.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments in Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of University of California, et. al. on Nov. 12, 2019. Nessel is joining with more than 25 Governors or state Attorneys General in support of DACA.
