A federal appeals court on Friday ruled against an Obama-era policy that provides amnesty and a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. as children.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled unanimously that a new version of the policy issued by President Biden in 2022 overstepped the executive branch's authority. The decision by two Republican-appointed judges and one Democratic-appointed judge is the latest blow to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in a string of legal challenges that has kept 500,000 so-called Dreamers waiting for a resolution for more than a decade.

The decision Friday does not immediately change the status quo. Program beneficiaries can still renew temporary permits to live and work in the United States without fear of deportation. But the federal government remains prohibited from issuing new applications.

However, Friday's decision does create an opportunity for DACA to be appealed to the Supreme Court for a third time. And it comes just three days before President-elect Trump assumes office with his promise to begin mass deportations of illegal immigrants.

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In his first term, Trump attempted to end DACA, but he also made statements expressing his desire for Dreamers to be permitted to stay in the U.S.

Obama introduced DACA in 2012, citing inaction by Congress on legislation aimed at giving those brought to the U.S. as children a path to legal status. Legal battles followed, including two trips to the Supreme Court.

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Biden's 2022 update to the policy did not change much substantively, but it was subject to public comment as part of a formal rule-making process intended to improve its chances of surviving in court.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paton, who led the challenge on behalf of Republican-led states, called Friday's ruling "a major victory." 

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"I look forward to working with President-elect Donald Trump to ensure that the rule of law is restored, and the illegal immigration crisis is finally stopped," Paxton said.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

In 2016, with one vacancy on the Supreme Court, the justices deadlocked 4-4 over an expanded DACA and a version of the program for parents of DACA recipients, keeping in place a lower court decision for the benefits to be blocked. In 2020, the high court ruled 5-4 that the Trump administration improperly ended DACA by failing to follow federal procedures, allowing it to stay in place.

FIRST ON FOX: Twenty Republican attorneys general are prepared to bolster President-elect Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration, according to a joint statement led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach shared with Fox News Digital. 

"The Biden Administration took dozens of executive actions that weakened border controls and sanctioned illegal immigration from around the world," the letter states. 

"Republican attorneys general fought back by taking the Biden Administration to court for ending successful Trump Administration immigration policies and replacing them with new policies that violated the law and encouraged illegal immigration. The Republican attorneys general prevailed in virtually every one of these laws."

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The AGs say they're ready to restore Trump's "America First" policies from Trump's first administration, particularly his "Remain in Mexico policy" and mass deportations.

"As we point out in this letter, the Remain in Mexico policy is something that's found in federal statute, and it's been in federal statute since 1996. President Trump was the first president who actually implemented that policy set by Congress," Kobach told Fox News Digital in an interview. 

"President Trump has all the statutory tools he needs," he added. "They are already in the federal code, and that's what we're saying too. As lawyers who have been trying to stop the Biden administration from violating the law, we are saying, ‘President Trump, you have our support, and you have a wide open runway ahead of you to renew the enforcement of our federal immigration laws.’"

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The attorneys general are also anticipating Trump will "fully rescind the unlawful DACA programs," as he promised during his first term. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, introduced in 2012 by the Obama administration, permits illegal immigrants brought to the country as children — often referred to as "Dreamers" — to temporarily remain in the country.

In addition to Kobach, attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia and Tennessee signed the statement.

Republican attorneys general across the U.S. have been at the forefront of filing lawsuits against the Biden administration over the last four years. This month, Texas AG Ken Paxton filed his 103rd lawsuit against the outgoing administration over its energy efficiency standards for housing.  

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The Republicans have secured several legal wins. In 2021, a coalition led by then-Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry obtained a preliminary injunction against the administration's suspension of new oil and gas leases on federal land. In May 2024, Paxton achieved a significant win in a lawsuit alleging unlawful censorship by the administration, with a federal judge denying the government's motion to dismiss and ordering expedited discovery. 

And a federal judge recently vacated the administration's Title IX rule, which had expanded protections against discrimination based on gender identity, after challenges from Republican-led states. 

"I think what the 20 or so attorneys general signing this statement is about what the law is and what the law requires," Kobach said. "And … we are very grateful and expect that President Trump will return us to a country where the law is enforced and the strictures that Congress has put in place are observed."

Arizona’s top law enforcement officer said in a recent interview she is unafraid to stand up to President-elect Trump on immigration enforcement.

Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes told the U.K.'s Guardian any plans to construct deportation centers, which she previously called "concentration camps," in the Grand Canyon State would be a nonstarter.

Mayes defended Dreamers, beneficiaries of the Obama-era DACA program, saying any federal attempts to send them to their home countries would be "a bright red line for me."

"I will not stand for an attempt to deport them or undermine them," Mayes said. "I will do everything I can legally to fight [family separation or construction of deportation camps].

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"Not on our soil."

The Dreamer moniker originates from the DREAM Act — Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors. It was first proposed by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and the late Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in 2001 and has been reintroduced in several succeeding sessions of Congress by Durbin but has never become law.

Most recently, it was proposed in 2023 by Durbin and his Republican counterpart in Senate Judiciary Committee leadership, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Former President Obama borrowed pieces of the legislation when he instituted DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Trump previously tried to get rid of DACA but was stopped by the Supreme Court in DHS v. University of California.

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"I think the Supreme Court will ultimately see the merits of protecting them," Mayes said of Dreamers. 

"We want to give the courts the opportunity to make the right decision here, and we’ll be making very strong arguments on that proposition."

In previous comments reported by the Arizona Mirror, Mayes said the issue with mass deportation proposals from people like Trump and "border czar"-designate Tom Homan is that they can lead to abuses of the system.

Mayes has said she wants to see violent criminal offenders and drug cartel members removed from the U.S.

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In the Guardian interview, Mayes credited near-complete border-state cooperation on the matter of immigration.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Mayes are "united," she said, adding Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is the one border state lawman who is not.

"[W]e are going to fight for due process and for individual rights," she said of herself, Torrez and Bonta.

Mayes also acknowledged the fentanyl crisis and a porous border, saying Arizonans rightly want it rectified.

She reportedly said more federal resources should be spent on additional Border Patrol and prosecutions of cartel-connected people, as opposed to Trump’s idea of using the National Guard to help deport illegal immigrants.

"[W]hen Arizonans voted for Donald Trump, they did not vote to shred the Arizona and U.S. Constitution [and] I strongly believe that," she told the Guardian.

Fox News Digital reached out to Team Trump and some members of Arizona’s Republican congressional delegation for comment on Mayes’ Guardian interview but did not receive a response by press time.