California Sues Trump Administration For Scrapping DACA Program

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) —  California is suing President Donald Trump's administration over its decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that protects young immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children from deportation.

Democratic Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed the lawsuit, which claimed the Trump administration violated 5th Amendment rights and other laws when it rescinded the program.

"In this country, I've never seen a case where we tell children that we're going to punish them for acts that they were not responsible for," Becerra said when he made the announcement about the suit at a news conference in Sacramento Monday morning.

Trump's action will harm the Golden State's economy because it is home to a quarter of the 800,000 people in the DACA program, the attorney general explained.

More than 200,000 of the so-called Dreamers in California have been granted a temporary legal right to live, study and work in the U.S. under the program.

The attorney general also spoke to CBS2/KCAL9 anchors Juan Fernandez and Leyna Nguyen in the afternoon via satellite from Sacramento.

Fifteen other states and the District of Columbia filed a similar lawsuit last week.

No new applicants are accepted into the program, which will end in six months if Congress does not act.