AG Balderas Files Brief in U.S. Supreme Court to Preserve DACA and Protect DREAMers

For Immediate Release:
September 30, 2019
Contact: Matt Baca (505) 270-7148

Albuquerque, NM–Attorney General Balderas, joining a coalition of 16 attorneys general,
announced today the filing of a brief in the United States Supreme Court in the coalition’s
ongoing lawsuit to protect Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The lawsuit,
originally filed in September 2017 and to be heard by the Supreme Court this fall, argues
that the Trump Administration’s attempt to revoke DACA was based on a faulty legal
analysis and harmed State residents, institutions, and economies.
“I will continue to fight President Trump’s attacks on our Dreamers, who are our future
military, law enforcement, doctors, and business owners,” said Attorney General Hector
Balderas. “Rescinding DACA wouldn’t just devastate the lives of the grantees who rely
on the program; it would also harm public safety, national security, research institutions
and our economy.”
In September 2017, the coalition filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern
District (EDNY) challenging the Trump Administration’s decision to terminate DACA. In
February 2018, the EDNY issued a nationwide preliminary injunction that halted DACA’s
termination. The United States Supreme Court will hear the case, together with parallel
challenges to DACA’s termination filed in federal courts in California and the District of
Columbia.
Since 2012, DACA has allowed approximately 800,000 young people who came to this
country as children and lack legal status to live, study, and work in the U.S. without fear
of arrest or deportation. New Mexico is home to an estimated 5,880 DACA recipients who
arrived at an average age of six years old. They are parents to an estimated 2,400
children and have $151.1 million in spending power. They pay $28.1 million in federal
taxes and $19.5 million in state and local taxes. Some 1000 of them own homes and paid
$8.3 million in mortgages, while others paid $21.1 million in rent.
Joining Attorney General Balderas and New York Attorney General Letitia James in filing
this brief and the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, the District
of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the Governor of
Colorado.