By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton University and tech giant Microsoft sued the Trump administration on Friday to protect a federal program that shields from deportation illegal immigrants who were brought to the country as young people.
They and Princeton senior Maria Perales, a “Dreamer” who had participated in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that the Trump administration announced in September it was rescinding, sued in federal court in Washington D.C. They want a judge to issue an injunction to stop the government from winding down the program, and to declare DACA legal,
Also, they asked that government not be allowed to use, for immigration enforcement, any information that Perales and others who had participated in DACA provided the government.
The university and Microsoft say they rely upon DACA, an Obama-era program, and have benefited from it. DACA, a shield from deportation, was aimed at people who came to the country before they were 16 years old and sought to give them the ability to work legally.
The university said that since 2012, it has enrolled “at least” 21 dreamers and has 15 of them enrolled now as undergraduates.
The university, which has butted heads with the Trump administration before on immigration, said its DACA recipients “are exceptionally resilient students who have overcome varied, serious life obstacles in the course of achieving great success,” the suit read in part. “Their membership in Princeton’s community helps the university to realize its educational mission.”
Meanwhile, Microsoft said it along with its subsidiary LinkedIn Corp. has 45 DACA employees working for them.
Perales is active at the university, part of the student group “Princeton DREAM Team,” according to the suit. In an article in the student newspaper last year, she was quoted as denouncing immigration raids by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Trump administration has countered the DACA program was an unconstitutional end-run around Congress and circumvented immigration laws.
In September, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said “the effect of this unilateral executive amnesty, among other things, contributed to a surge of unaccompanied minors on the southern border that yielded terrible humanitarian consequences.”
The government is winding down the program, but has given lawmakers time to find a legislative solution.
