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ICYMI: Texas Attorney General Paxton Again Tries to Justify His Continued Attacks Against Young Immigrants

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In an opinion piece in USA Today, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton again strained to justify his attacks on young immigrants and his relentless drive to strip them of their protections provided by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Paxton and six other Republican attorneys general have sued the Trump administration to end the successful program, despite three federal district court judges already ruling that DACA should be fully reinstated.

Mario Carrillo, Director of America’s Voice Texas, said,

Ken Paxton is obsessed with ending DACA, arguing his case in the pages of national media – and in the courtroom of his hand-picked Judge Andrew Hanen. Yesterday, in that federal district courtroom, Paxton’s attorneys claimed that DACA was costing Texas money, when the opposite is true.

Texas has a long bipartisan history of supporting immigrants, especially immigrant youth. We were the first state to allow in-state tuition and state aid for undocumented students. That’s because our leaders understood the value immigrant young people add to our state. In reality, ending DACA would cost the state billions of dollars. But Paxton isn’t concerned with facts. This is about craven anti-immigrant politics, about divine us and distracting us from the fact that Republicans are actively working to take our healthcare away, to make education less accessible, and to increase our taxes while lining the pockets of special interests and the wealthy.

It is rich to see Ken Paxton pontificate on “the rule of law,” when like U.S. Representative Chris Collins (R-NY), he has been indicted for securities fraud. Poll after poll show that Texans support DACA  and we will continue fighting to ensure that immigrant youth are protected and able to live freely and with dignity.