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Tennessee AG Backs Out of Planned DACA Legal Challenge

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Tennessee's attorney general is abandoning a planned legal challenge of a federal program offering a reprieve from deportation to thousands of young immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children. 

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program created by President Barack Obama's administration provides temporary work permits to nearly 800,000 young people.

A group of states that had included Tennessee set a Tuesday deadline for President Donald Trump to end the program or face a court challenge.

But Republican Attorney General Herbert Slatery said in a letter to Tennessee's U.S. senators on Friday that he believes congressional action on the matter "is a better approach."

Slatery said he expects a court challenge would be successful, but that he recognizes a "human element" of canceling the program.

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