and the fate of roughly half a million immigrants who were brought to the US illegally as children is being considered by a federal appeals court a panel of judges in Louisiana today is deciding whether the Obama era program called deferred action for childhood arrivals is unlawful DACA allows those individuals referred to as dreamers to live and work in the US with protections and the program has been the subject of a yearslong court battle after Texas and six other states filed a lawsuit in 2018 arguing DACA was a presidential overreach putting burden on States New Jersey joined the suit as a defendant arguing the state would suffer if dreamers were deported because they've become part of their communities some 14,000 dreamers are estimated to call the Garden State home well a Texas judge ruled the program illegal last year but stopped short of shutting it down and today judges gave no indication when or how they'll rule Gretal Rodriguez was born in Honduras and came to New Jersey at the age of four she traveled to New Orleans for today's arguments anytime DACA is back in the cords any time it's making news headlines it's sort of that reality check for docer recipients like myself in that this program provides no permanent protections or a pathway to citizenship it's merely a Band-Aid over a larger wound and a product of an outdated immigration system um so being in the courtroom you know this was my first time in federal court it was again surreal and this really is a case that shouldn't even be in court to begin with because we provide so many benefits um back to our communities back to the state of New Jersey and the country overall