FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators protest in front of the White House after the Trump administration today scrapped the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program that protects from deportation almost 800,000 young men and women who were brought into the U.S. illegally as children, in Washington, U.S., September 5, 2017. REUTERS

SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON: A US judge in San Francisco temporarily barred President Donald Trump?s administration on Tuesday from ending a program shielding young people brought to the United States illegally by their parents from deportation.

The Trump administration announced in September it would rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a decision that was challenged in multiple federal courts by a variety of Democratic state attorneys general, organizations and individuals.

US District Judge William Alsup ruled in San Francisco on Tuesday the program must remain in place while the litigation is resolved. The ruling could complicate negotiations between Trump and congressional leaders over immigration reform.

?Today?s order doesn?t change the Department of Justice?s position on the facts,? said the department?s spokesman Devin M. O?Malley. The department ?will continue to vigorously defend this position,? he said.

Alsup?s decision follows a number of rulings by other US judges seeking to rein in Trump?s immigration policies, including decisions that limited administration moves against sanctuary cities and narrowed the scope of a ban against travel from some Muslim-majority counties.

Nearly 700,000 young people, known as Dreamers, were protected from deportation and allowed to work legally under the DACA program as of September 2017, Alsup?s ruling said.

Alsup ruled that the federal government did not have to process new applications from people who had never before received protection under the program. However, he ordered the government to continue processing renewal applications from people who had previously been covered.