US judge rules against Trump move to end DACA program

The Trump administration's decision to end a program protecting young immigrants from deportation has been ruled against by a US federal judge.

File: A protester holds a sign-board during a march from the Hart Senate Office Building to the Capitol Hill in Washington in November 2017 Source: AAP

A US federal judge has ruled against the Trump administration's decision to end a program protecting young immigrants from deportation, calling the Department of Homeland Security's rationale against the program "arbitrary and capricious."

US District Judge John D. Bates in Washington wrote that the decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, "was unlawful and must be set aside."

Bates wrote that DHS' decision "was predicated primarily on its legal judgment that the program was unlawful. That legal judgment was virtually unexplained, however, and so it cannot support the agency's decision."

Bates gave DHS 90 days to "better explain its view that DACA is unlawful." If the department cannot come up with a better explanation, he wrote, it "must accept and process new as well as renewal DACA applications."

DACA allowed immigrants brought to the US illegally as children, known as Dreamers, to stay and work legally under renewable permits.

President Donald Trump announced last year that he would end the program started by President Barack Obama. It was officially rescinded in March, but DHS is continuing to issue renewals because of previous court orders.

Bates is the third judge to rule against administration plans to end the program.