Governor Butch Otter and state Attorney General Lawrence Wasden are threatening to sue the Trump Administration if it doesn’t abolish a holdover policy from former President Obama.
This week, the Idaho leaders joined nine other attorneys general from Republican-led states who want to curtail the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA. The program protects some undocumented people from deportation who were brought to the country when they were small children.
Otter and Wasden signed a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions saying they’ll take legal action if DACA isn’t ended by September 5.
According to the Times News, the Trump Administration plans to undo a proposed expansion of DACA currently making its way through the courts. The expansion would’ve shielded the undocumented children’s parents from deportation. While taking issue with broadening the scope of the program, the administration planned to leave DACA in its current state in place.
Leaders of the mostly-Southern states signing the letter to Sessions claim they’ll amend a lawsuit focusing on the DACA expansion to target the entire program if it’s not revoked by the September deadline.
In Idaho, just over 3,100 people have been authorized to stay in the country by way of the DACA program.
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