But the judges stayed their ruling and for now, hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients will continue to have protection from deportation.

A US federal appeals court ruled against an Obama-era policy to shield immigrants who came to the country illegally as young children, only three days before Donald Trump takes office with pledges of mass deportations.

A panel of three federal judges Friday upheld a lower court’s decision to strike down the legality of a program that has shielded more than half a million people from deportation who entered the United States as children,