NEW YORK (Reuters) â A U.S. federal judge in Texas on Friday blocked new applications to a program that protects immigrants who were brought to the United States as children from deportation, but said the hundreds of thousands of people already enrolled would not be affected until further court rulings.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen sided with a group of states suing to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA program, arguing that it was illegally created by former President Barack Obama in 2012.
Hanen found the program violated the Administrative Procedure Act  when it was created but said that since there were so many people currently enrolled in the program â nearly 650,000 â his ruling would be temporarily stayed for their cases and their renewal applications.