A federal judge in Texas ruled Wednesday that a regulation intended to preserve the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is unlawful, delivering a major blow to the Biden administration.

Last year, the administration moved to preserve the program -- which protects undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children -- and released a rule to codify the policy into a federal regulation.

But in a Wednesday filing, Judge Andrew Hanen, of the Southern District of Texas, maintained that DACA is unlawful and argued the rule violated the Administrative Procedure Act, a law that governs how agencies make regulations.

The order doesn't impact current beneficiaries of the program.

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