MALDEF STATEMENT ON TEXAS LETTER DEMANDING REPEAL OF DACA

MALDEF

June 29, 2017

Los Angeles, CA - Please attribute the following statement on the letter from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and 10 other states demanding that the federal government rescind 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):

"MALDEF condemns in the strongest terms each of the state officials who joined in threatening the federal administration to repeal DACA. The signatories have etched their names in ignominy throughout all of future history. Their evident xenophobia is not remotely consistent with the trajectory of our nation's history and future progress. Their political careers and each of their states will suffer from their mean-spirited stupidity.

MALDEF urges the president not to cave in to the toothless threat in today's Texas letter. Presidential authority does constitutionally extend to protecting DACA recipients, whom the president has repeatedly declared worthy of protection. We urge the president to fight to vindicate that authority.

MALDEF takes encouragement from the fact that less than half of the plaintiff states in Texas v. United States joined today's craven letter. For its part, MALDEF, on behalf of the Jane Doe intervenors whom we represent, will be moving to dismiss the case as moot and not appropriate for the threatened expansion."

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.