SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KGTV/AP) - The University of California system sued President Trump's administration Friday over the end of the DACA program protecting some immigrant students from deportation.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco includes university president Janet Napolitano as a plaintiff.
Napolitano was Homeland Security secretary under the Obama administration and helped implement its Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
She said it was important for the public university system to "stand up for these vital members of the UC community."
"They represent the best of who we are -- hard-working, resilient and motivated high achievers. To arbitrarily and capriciously end the DACA program, which benefits our country as a whole, is not only unlawful, it is contrary to our national values and bad policy," Napolitano said.
The program protected about 800,000 people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or came with families who overstayed visas, including hundreds of thousands of college-age students.
The lawsuit said the university will lose students and employees because of President Donald Trump's decision to end the program.
The UC system has about 4,000 students who are in the United States illegally, "a substantial number of whom have DACA, as well as teachers, researchers and health care providers who are DACA recipients," the university system said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
An email sent to the U.S. Department of Justice seeking comment was not immediately returned.
Fifteen states have sued separately over the president's decision.
