Young immigrant files lawsuit challenging Trump administration’s DACA decision

Claudia Torrens | AP

Martin Batalla Vidal, who was born in Mexico, poses in Brooklyn, New York, Friday, Aug. 26th 2016. Vidal has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government in order to recover the three-year work permit that was given to him as part of one of President Barack Obama’s immigration-relief programs.

Just hours after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the White House’s move to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, a young New York immigrant has filed a lawsuit arguing that the decision “violate[s] federal law and the equal protection guarantee of the Constitution,” according to a press release shared with CNBC via email.

Batalla Vidal, a 26-year-old Mexican immigrant and DACA recipient, in conjunction with nonprofit group Make the Road New York, went to federal court Tuesday to challenge the Trump administration’s termination of the Obama-era program that protects an estimated 800,000 people who entered the United States illegally as children.

The case, Batalla Vidal v. Baran, et al, was originally filed in 2016 challenging a court decision that blocked the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) program and the expansion of DACA from going into effect.

On Tuesday, the lawsuit was amended to challenge the White House’s decision to end DACA. It was brought in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The suit is against the U.S. federal government, according to a representative from the National Immigration Law Center. There has been no response yet to the suit.

“Losing DACA would have a dramatic impact on my life. It would prevent me from being able to take on major professional or academic goals, make me unable to work legally, and put me at risk of being deported and separated from my family,” Vidal said.