Federal immigration authorities have resumed accepting requests for renewals in DACA, the Obama administration program that shielded hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from being deported.
The government's announcement came four days after a federal judge in San Francisco temporarily blocked the Trump administration's decision to phase out the program.
In a statement posted on its website, Citizenship and Immigration Services said: "Due to a federal court order, USCIS has resumed accepting requests to renew a grant of deferred action under DACA."
DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The program allowed some young immigrants in the country illegally to obtain two-year permits to stay legally, work and attend school.
Saturday's announcement means that people who had been granted "deferred action" may request a renewal. The government is now accepting requests from people who had never been granted DACA status.
The preliminary injunction temporarily blocking the halting of DACA was issued Tuesday by U.S. District Judge William Alsup in response to lawsuits by the state of California, the University of California and attorneys general from Maine, Maryland and Minnesota. In a Twitter post the day after the ruling, President Donald Trump said "it just shows how broken and unfair our court system is."
Critics said Barack President Obama abused executive power by creating DACA. Last September, Trump ordered that the program end by March, and Congress has been working since then to come up with a legislative remedy to protect the DACA beneficiaries, who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children or entered the U.S. legally but overstayed visas.
About 700,000 people obtained protection from deportation through DACA. Advocates for immigrants estimate that each day more than 120 DACA recipients have been losing their protected status because of Trump's order.
