Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
A federal judge on Friday upheld an order for the Trump administration to restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, saying ending the Obama-era program would be “unlawful and unconstitutional.” U.S. District Judge John Bates issued a 25-page opinion finding that the federal government had failed to “elaborate meaningfully” on the “primary rationale for its decision” to end the program, which protects young undocumented immigrants from deportation if they were brought into the country as children. In April, Bates had given the Trump administration 90 days to provide justification for its move to end the program. The government now has 20 days to either appeal Bates’ ruling or resume the program. Bates joins judges in California and New York in ruling to save DACA, while several other states are continuing their own legal bid to stop the program.