More than 117,000 people have received extensions so far this year through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to legally live and study in the U.S. following a lawsuit filed by the University of California last year, UC officials said.
The renewals come after UC President Janet Napolitano sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in September 2017 after President Donald Trump's repeal of the DACA program. The suit claims that the repeal of the program violates students' rights.
An injunction was granted by U.S. District Judge William Alsup on Jan. 9 that required the DHS to continue processing DACA renewal applications through the end of June as the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reviews the case.
The DACA program allows immigrants brought to the country as children to become eligible for a work permit that is good for at least two years. The program does not provide a pathway for citizenship.
UC officials said that between the date of Alsup's ruling and the end of June, the injunction has benefited 117,446 people who need the program to work or attend college in the U.S. The original lawsuit called Trump's repeal "nothing more than unreasoned executive whim."
"Our efforts on behalf of our DACA students and the hundreds of thousands of other DACA recipients throughout the country are far from over," Napolitano said in a statement.
Napolitano headed the DHS from 2009 to 2013.
