Donald Trump
Donald TrumpReuters

The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against the Trump Administration's attempt to dismantle DACA, an Obama-era policy which shielded hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who were brought to the US as children from deportation.

Thew Obama Administration established the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program through executive action in 2012. In 2017, the Trump Administration announced its intention to slowly end the program, which had never been passed by Congress.

The decision to rescind DACA was immediately challenged through legal action, culminating in Thursday's 5-4 Supreme Court ruling.

Chief Justice John Roberts joined the four liberal justices on the court in ruling against the Administration, calling the decision to end DACA "arbitrary and capricious."

However, Justice Roberts also stated that the court's decision does "not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies" and said that the Department of Homeland Security could reexamine the issue.

"Here the agency failed to consider the conspicuous issues of whether to retain forbearance and what if anything to do about the hardship to DACA recipients," Roberts wrote. "That dual failure raises doubts about whether the agency appreciated the scope of its discretion or exercised that discretion in a reasonable manner."

The court's decision could protect as many as 700,000 people who were illegally brought to the US as children from deportation.