A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the Obama-era DACA program that protects hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant “Dreamers” violates the law — but the judges allowed the program to remain in effect pending Supreme Court action.

The three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the program violates the Immigration and Nationality Act, which lays out which migrants are granted legal status and which ones are not.

The ruling largely matched a previous one by the same court. But the Biden administration had updated the DACA program and offered a new legal justification. Judge Jerry E. Smith, writing the opinion for the court, said that attempt to legally launder the program failed.

But the court did limit the scope of its legal ruling to Texas, saying that was the only state in the case that showed it faced an injury from DACA.

And the court stayed the entirety of its ruling to give the government a chance to appeal.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.