This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A ruling from a federal court has concluded that Barack Obama's program to protect illegal aliens, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is illegal.

The decision from U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, however, failed to order it halted.

According to a report at Just the News, Hanen specifically found the Biden administration's scheme to codify the program through the writing of new regulations illegal.

The program protects those who came to the United States illegally from deportation if certain conditions are met.

The report said an estimated 580,000 people have enrolled in the program.

The same judge ruled in 2021 that the program could continue, but at that time banned new applicants from joining.

The fight is expected to advance now to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and possibly even the Supreme Court.

As the fight has been in the courts for years already, it was the 5th Circuit that last year ruled the DACA scheme was illegal.

"DACA creates a new class of otherwise removable aliens who may obtain lawful presence, work authorization, and associated benefits," the appeals judges said then> "Congress determined which aliens can receive these benefits, and it did not include DACA recipients among them."

Obama created DACA in 2012, but President Trump tried to take it down starting in 2017. Texas and other states first sued to end the program in 2018.

The Supreme Court said in 2020 that President Trump failed to follow the Administrative Procedure Act in his plan to end the program.

At that time Chief Justice John Roberts sided with liberal justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sonia Sotomayor.