Appeals court again declares DACA illegal, but keeps immigration policy alive

Washington — A federal appeals court on Friday declared the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration policy unlawful, casting a cloud of certainty over more than half a million unauthorized immigrants brought to the U.S. as children ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration.

A panel of judges before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld a lower court ruling that found a Biden administration rule to codify DACA violated U.S. immigration law. The 2012 Obama administration memo that originally created the policy has also been found to be unlawful by federal courts.

For more than 12 years, DACA has allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants who crossed into the U.S. illegally or overstayed their visas as minors to live and work in the U.S., without fear of deportation. They are colloquially known as "Dreamers," a moniker stemming from the Dream Act, a bipartisan effort to legalize them that Congress has considered, but failed to pass, for over two decades.