A federal appeals court Wednesday ordered a lower court review of the Biden administration’s revisions to a program preventing the deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought into the United States as children.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a federal district judge in Texas should take another look at the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program after the new regulations proposed by theBiden administration. The decision leaves the future of the program on hold, with current DACA recipients protected for the time being, but new candidates barred.

Recently, on August 24, the federal government released a new regulation aimed at codifying DACA. The few changes from the 2012 memo that created the program seek to improve their chances of survival in legal battles. However, immigration advocates from several national organizations were disappointed that the new rule did not extend the program to more immigrants. For them, only new legislation passed in Congress would create a permanent path for the legalization of young immigrants, as pointed out in aprevious publication.

According to the Associated Press President Joe Biden said in a statement that he was “disappointed” in the ruling, noting, “The court’s stay provides a temporary reprieve for DACA recipients but one thing remains clear: the lives of Dreamers remain in limbo. And while we will use the tools, we have to allow Dreamers to live and work in the only country they know as home, it is long past time for Congress to pass permanent protections for Dreamers, including a pathway to citizenship”.

National Immigration Law Center Executive Director Marielena Hincapié told The Hill that “DACA is legally and morally right, but it was always meant to be temporary”. According to the publication, “Even the immigrant youth who, under the federal court’s new ruling, can remain enrolled in the program must renew every two years — and continued legal challenges jeopardize the protections it affords”.

DACA has been around for 10 years but has been closed for new registration requests since July 2021, when the program was found illegal by Texas Federal Judge Andrew Hanen, although he agreed to leave the program intact for those who already benefit from it during the appeals period. In the decision, Hanen argued that former President Barack Obama did not have the authority to create DACA as it skirted Congress. There was a joint lawsuit filed by Texas and other Republican-led states before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Former President Donald Trump tried to shut down the program, but he was blocked from doing it by the Supreme Court.

“The Biden administration appealed, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday ruled to uphold the lower court’s decision but sent it back for review due to a new rule put forth by the administration, effective Oct. 31”,  according to The Hill.