HOUSTON -- A federal judge in Texas has declined to order that the U.S. government stop the Obama-era program shielding young immigrants from deportation.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen's ruling on Friday is a blow to opponents of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. They filed a lawsuit in hopes Hanen would rule the program unconstitutional.

That would have triggered a conflict with three federal orders that have required the U.S. government to keep accepting DACA renewals even after President Donald Trump tried to end the program last year. Legal experts say such a conflict would have drawn the attention of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Texas led a group of seven states suing the U.S. government to end DACA. With federal officials also now opposing the program, other states intervened to defend it, as did the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Attorney General Ken Paxton today released the following statement:

“[T]he Plaintiff States have shown a likelihood of success on the merits of their claim that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) program is contrary to the Administrative Procedure Act[.]  The Court also found that the Plaintiff States had made a clear showing of irreparable injury.”  The Court only declined to issue a preliminary injunction of the unlawful DACA program because of the timing of the lawsuit. 

“We’re now very confident that DACA will soon meet the same fate as the Obama-era Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program, which the courts blocked after I led another state coalition challenging its constitutionality,” Attorney General Paxton said. “President Obama used DACA to rewrite federal law without congressional approval. Our lawsuit is vital to restoring the rule of law to our nation’s immigration system. The debate over DACA as policy is a question for lawmakers, and any solution must come from Congress, as the Constitution requires.”