SACRAMENTO — California sued the Trump administration Monday over its decision to end a program that gives protection from deportation to young immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children or by parents who overstayed visas.
The lawsuit’s legal arguments largely mirror those already filed in a lawsuit last week by 15 other states and the District of Columbia.
Attorney General Xavier Becerra said he was joined in his suit by the attorney generals for Maryland, Maine, and Minnesota. The lawsuit alleges the Trump administration violated the Constitution and other laws when it rescinded the program.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis is urging President Trump to rethink his decision to end the program, saying anyone who calls himself ‘‘prolife’’ should keep families together.
‘‘If he is a good prolife believer he must understand that family is the cradle of life and one must defend its unity,’’ Francis said during a press conference.
Francis said he hadn’t read up on Trump’s decision to phase out the Deferred Action for Children Program, which allows some immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children to stay.
About 800,000 people are affected by Trump’s decision to give Congress six months to end their limbo status.
But he said in general, removing children from families ‘‘isn’t something that bears fruit for either the youngsters or their families.’’
‘‘I hope they rethink it a bit,’’ he said.
Already the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has denounced Trump’s decision to end the DACA program, calling it ‘‘reprehensible’’ and placing ‘‘unnecessary fear for DACA youth and their families.’’
Francis has clashed previously with Trump over issues of immigration, saying that anyone who wants to build a wall to keep out migrants is ‘‘not Christian.’’
The lawsuit filed Monday makes largely procedural arguments, including that federal law requires that such decisions be made for sound reasons and only after the public has a chance to make formal comments.
It said the administration also failed to follow a federal law requiring it to consider negative effects of the decision on small businesses.
Becerra told the Associated Press last week that California would file its own lawsuit because more than 200,000 of the 800,000 participants in the program live in the state and that California would be the state hit hardest by the end of the program.
But the lawsuit mirrors a suit already filed in New York by 15 states and the District of Columbia. Plaintiffs include New York, Massachusetts, Washington, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia.
