New York threatens to sue if Trump ends DACA

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) announced Monday they intend to sue if President Trump ends the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

“President Trump’s decision to end the DACA program would be cruel, gratuitous, and devastating to tens of thousands of New Yorkers—and I will sue to protect them,” Schneiderman said in a statement.

“Dreamers are Americans in every way. They played by the rules. They pay their taxes. And they’ve earned the right to stay in the only home they have ever known,” he added, using a term commonly used to refer to recipients of the Obama-era program.

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Cuomo called Trump’s reported decision to end DACA a “cruel action,” saying it would be “an assault on the values that built [New York] and this nation.”

“We should not and cannot sit on the sidelines and watch the lives of these young people ruined,” Cuomo said. “We have both a legal and moral obligation to make sure that the laws are faithfully executed without discrimination or animus.”

Politico reported Sunday night that Trump has decided to end DACA, which temporarily shielded from deportation undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as minors and sought work permits.

The White House has said that an announcement on DACA will come Tuesday.

Nearly 800,000 people brought to the country illegally as children have benefitted from the program set up in 2012.

Trump’s decision reportedly includes a six-month delay that would give Congress a window in which it could step in before the protections expire, one White House official told Politico.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called on the president not to end the program, with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) saying he believes it’s something “Congress has to fix.”

Schneiderman has previously threatened to sue Trump if Trump signed a bill repealing ObamaCare.