Washington AG Bob Ferguson vows to fight for DACA; announces lawsuit

Attorney General Bob Ferguson today joined 14 other states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit against President Donald Trump for ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program or DACA.

“You cannot take an action that is arbitrary or capricious,” Ferguson said in a news conference with Gov. Jay Inslee.

They were surrounded by DACA recipients, brought here as children by their undocumented parents.

“This is one more of a long train of abuses that this president has attempted to foist on this bright nation,” said Inslee.

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They shared personal information with the government so they could go to college and get work permits. Now that information might now be used to deport them.

“I try to think, ‘what are the right words for how outrageous this is?’ Ferguson said, the emotion evident in his voice. “It's outrageous, it is, it's outrageous.”

The lawsuit notes that 78 percent of DACA grantees are of Mexican origin.

“If a majority of the Dreamers were Caucasian, does anybody really think this president would have taken the action he took yesterday?” Ferguson said.

The president's earlier statements disparaging Mexicans might be used against him.

“They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists, and some I assume are good people,” Trump said when he launched his campaign in June of 2015.

The chairman of the Washington Republican Party dismisses Ferguson.

“I think the Washington attorney general is running for governor in 2020 and this is just another one of his ploys to get attention,” said Susan Hutchison.

DACA grantee Faride Cuevas, was brought here from Mexico at the age of 9. And because of DACA was able to earn her college degree at the University of Washington-Bothell. She’s now a policy aide for King County Councilmember Jeanne Kohl-Welles.

“I've been working hard, buy my car, also start saving to you know in the future be able to buy a home, but I don't know if that's going to be possible.”

Ferguson says the case will play out in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.

Cox Media Group