Virginia AG Mark Herring Joins Coalition Defending “DREAMers”

RICHMOND (September 6, 2017)-Attorney General Mark R. Herring today joined 15 other state attorneys general to defend DREAMers from President Trump’s termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, a move that would harm Virginia’s businesses and economy, schools, and public safety efforts, all while threatening to tear families apart and send young people back to unfamiliar foreign countries. Herring and 19 fellow state attorneys general previously wrote President Trump encouraging him to maintain the DACA program and volunteering to help him defend it in court, if necessary. Now, Herring and his fellow state attorneys general intend to challenge the President’s actions in court in a lawsuit that alleges termination of the program violates Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the Fifth Amendment and regulatory laws that govern federal policy making.

“More than 12,000 DREAMers are living, learning, and working in Virginia today,”said Attorney General Herring. “I’ve had the privilege to meet and get to know many of these young people. They come from many countries and backgrounds. They have jobs, families, and academic careers. They work, learn, play sports, and worship alongside us and our kids. They are valued members of their companies, schools, and communities. Simply put, there is no upside to ending DACA, only downside. It will hurt Virginia’s economy and make our communities less safe. It will needlessly tear families apart, burden social services, and turn our back on promising, talented young people who want our country to success. I’m hopeful that Congress will do the right thing and fix this problem right away, but if they do not, we’ll be ready to defend Virginia DREAMers in court.”

“The roughly 12,000 DREAMers in the Commonwealth are more than just residents – they are friends, neighbors, employees, classmates, and they are Virginians,” said Governor Terry McAuliffe. “I wholeheartedly support Attorney General Herring joining the multi-state suit to protect the children of immigrants from President Trump’s cynical decision to rescind DACA. My administration will use every tool at our disposal to prevent these actions from harming Virginia families, our community, or our economy.”

Virginia and the other 15 states have filed suit in the Eastern District of New Yorkchallenging President Trump’s decision to terminate DACA. The states allege:

The states seek, among other forms of relief:

States filing today’s complaint are Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.

Recipients of DACA, often called DREAMers, are young people who were brought to the United States at an early age without proper immigration documentation. In order to receive DACA status, a young person must come forward and apply for deferred action. To qualify, the applicant must have been brought to the United States at a young age, continually resided in the United States for the last ten years, be in school or the military, and have a clean criminal record.

More than 12,000 young people in Virginia have been approved for DACA according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. These young people are now in school or working in Virginia and it is estimated that removing them from the workforce would cost Virginia more than $711 million in annual GDP losses.

Nationwide, nearly 800,000 young people have been approved for DACA, and it is estimated that ending DACA would result in a loss of approximately $460 billion from the national GDP over the next decade. For this reason, business leaders and CEOs from some of America’s largest companies, including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, General Motors, Facebook, HP, Starbucks, and more have written an open letter to President Trump and Congressional leaders expressing their support for the program.

A recent poll showed that nearly 80% of Americans believe that DREAMers should be allowed to remain in their home communities in the United States, rather than deported back to countries they may not have been to in decades and where they may have no connections.

A recent survey of more than 3,000 DACA recipients found that: