Attorneys general from Texas and nine other Republican-led states threatened Thursday to sue the Trump administration over a program that grants deportation relief and access to work permits to nearly 788,000 "Dreamers," or undocumented immigrants brought to the country at a young age.

In a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the states urged the administration to rescind the June 2012 memorandum that created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program during President Barack Obama's first term.

The letter called on the federal government to phase out DACA by ceasing to accept new enrollees or to renew existing applications — a decision that would leave many Dreamers subject to deportation.

In 2014, Obama expanded the DACA program and created a separate deportation reprieve for parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. The DACA expansion would have shielded an estimated 3.6 million people from deportation. But it never took effect because Texas and 25 states sued the Obama administration and persuaded the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to block its implementation. The Supreme Court deadlocked on the issue, leaving a preliminary injunction in place.

-snip-

While President Trump wavered Thursday on whether he will stop shielding from deportation people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, his aides have identified at least two ways to quietly end their protections without his fingerprints.

-snip-

Another possible path involves the courts. A handful of governors are considering a challenge patterned on the 2014 lawsuit filed by several conservative state officials against the Obama administration’s expansion of deportation protections. If they sue, Sessions could instruct his lawyers not to defend the program in court, exposing it to indefinite suspension by a federal judge.

-snip-