Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a motion for summary judgment in his ongoing federal lawsuit against the Biden administration's DACA program on February 1, 2023. The motion seeks to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provides temporary protection from deportation and work authorization for certain undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children.
Paxton has consistently argued that the federal executive branch lacks the constitutional authority to unilaterally grant lawful presence and work authorization to individuals who are unlawfully present in the United States. His office contends that DACA represents executive overreach that circumvents congressional immigration laws.
The current motion represents the latest phase in Paxton's multi-year legal campaign against DACA. His office has achieved several court victories, including a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in October 2022 that affirmed the program lacked legal authority when originally instituted.
Texas has led multiple multi-state coalitions challenging various iterations of the DACA program spanning both the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations. Paxton previously filed lawsuits in 2018 with a seven-state coalition and has continued challenging Biden administration attempts to preserve the program through new rulemaking.
"Our lawsuit is about the rule of law, not the wisdom of any particular immigration policy," Paxton said in previous statements about his DACA challenges. "Texas has argued for years that the federal executive branch lacks the power to unilaterally grant unlawfully present aliens lawful presence and work authorization."
The summary judgment motion follows the Biden administration's efforts to formalize DACA through federal rulemaking after courts found the original Obama-era program was implemented without proper procedures. The administration published a final rule in August 2022 attempting to provide stronger legal foundation for the program.
If granted, the motion would effectively end the DACA program nationwide, affecting hundreds of thousands of recipients currently protected under the program. The case continues a decade-long legal battle over the program's legality that has reached the Supreme Court multiple times.