Pre-Trump DACA rules being reinstated, US agency says

DACA participant Gloria Mendoza and others demonstrate in support of the program, in New York City, Jan. 10, 2018. (Reuters)

Participants in the DACA program may continue to request renewals under terms that were in place before President Donald Trump rescinded the program in September, U.S. immigration officials announced Saturday.

The decision by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services came four days after a federal judge, in a nod to pending lawsuits, temporarily blocked the Trump administration's decision to end the program.

“Due to a federal court order, USCIS has resumed accepting requests to renew a grant of deferred action under DACA. Until further notice, and unless otherwise provided in this guidance, the DACA policy will be operated on the terms in place before it was rescinded on Sept. 5, 2017,” the agency said in a statement.

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However, the agency said it would not accept new applicants for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which was initiated by the Obama administration. The program has protected about 800,000 people -- many of them college-age students.

Congress is debating whether to write new legislation that would grant legal citizenship to those registered under DACA.

Trump has repeatedly said he opposes DACA unless Congress agrees to fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Associated Press has contributed to this story.