A judge on Saturday rejected the White House ’ s limitations on a program protecting 700 , 000 so- called “ Dreamers , ” undocumented migrants brought to the United States as children .
The federal judge in New York ruled that President Donald Trump’ s acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf was not lawfully serving in his role when he issued the new rules for the DACA program in July .
The ruling is another victory for proponents of the Barack Obama – era program after the US Supreme Court in June rejected Trump’ s cancellation of it .
President – elect Joe Biden, who defeated Trump in the November 3 polls , had pledged to reinstate the program when he takes office on January 20 .
Wolf , who has not been confirmed in his role by the US Senate , issued new restrictions on the program in response to the Supreme Court ruling .
Saturday ’ s court decision said his restrictions “ effectively suspended ” DACA , or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, while the Trump administration reviewed how to proceed .
Wolf ’ s rules said new applications would not be accepted and renewals would be limited to one year instead of two .
