Biden administration moves to safeguard DACA program for "Dreamers" as court ruling looms

The Biden administration on Friday announced it will issue a rule to protect an Obama-era deportation relief program from a court challenge that threatens the legal protections of hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.

Citing instructions in an executive order signed by President Biden on Inauguration Day, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said his department will publish a proposed rule to "preserve and fortify" the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. While the DACA program withstood a years-long Trump administration effort to end it, it is currently facing its most imminent and potent legal test yet. U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen is set to issue a ruling in a lawsuit filed by Texas' Republican attorney general, who is seeking to have the Obama-era program declared unlawful and gradually terminated.