MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Setback for Trump: Federal judge rules in support of “Dreamers” program

Judge Bates is giving DHS 90 days to “better explain its view” that DACA is unlawful DACA temporarily shielded Dreamers from deportation

A federal judge has ruled against the Trump administration's decision to end a program protecting some young immigrants from deportation. US District Judge John D Bates in Washington says the Department of Homeland Security's decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program “was unlawful and must be set aside.”

Bates is giving DHS 90 days to “better explain its view” that DACA is unlawful. After that, he says, DHS “must accept and process new as well as renewal DACA applications.”

DACA temporarily shielded from deportation so-called Dreamers — immigrants brought illegally to the US as children. President Donald Trump announced last year that he would end the program.

Bates' ruling on Tuesday night comes in a pair of cases whose lead plaintiffs are the NAACP and Princeton University.