TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has joined a legal battle to save a federal program that shields young immigrants from deportation.
Kelly’s move Friday puts the Democratic governor and Republican Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt on opposite sides of a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Kelly signed onto written legal arguments opposing President Donald Trump’s attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Kelly joined Democratic Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and the Democratic attorneys general of Michigan and Nevada.
Schmidt has joined 11 other GOP state attorneys general and Mississippi’s Republican Gov. Phil Bryant in a court filing arguing that the DACA program wasn’t lawful.
The program established by President Barack Obama grants temporary legal status to immigrants without proper documents who came to the U.S. as children.
