Los Angeles Marchers Protest DACA Decision

Protesters held posters Tuesday evening and chanting, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go" and "Our communities are under attack. What do we do? Stand up. Fight back."

Some were waving American flags. Los Angeles police have been shutting down nearby intersections as the crowd marches, AP reported.

Demonstrations were held nationwide Tuesday, including outside Trump Tower in New York, in San Francisco and near federal office buildings in Phoenix.

Civil rights organizations in New York have asked a federal judge to let them challenge President Donald Trump's planned phase out of a program shielding young immigrants from deportation.

The groups asked Tuesday to piggyback on an existing lawsuit brought last year by Martín Batalla Vidal, who was brought to the US from Mexico by his parents when he was 7. Vidal is now 26.

Originally, Vidal had been fighting to revive an expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that had been halted by the courts.

Groups including Yale Law School students, the National Immigration Law Center and the anti-poverty group make the Road New York now want to amend that suit to take on Trump's plan to dismantle the program entirely.

They say Trump's rollback violates the Constitution because it is based on discrimination over race, ethnicity or national origin.

"This decision by Donald Trump is a direct attack on immigrant youth like me and on our families, and it's based on one thing: the racist beliefs of a president who has been attacking Latinos and Mexicans since the first day of his campaign," Vidal said in a written statement.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the administration is ending DACA because it believed President Barrack Obama's creation of the program without Congressional approval was "an unconstitutional exercise of authority."

Advocates of immigration restrictions are applauding the demise of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and say any effort to save it by Congress must be tied to new enforcement measures.

Center for Immigration Studies executive director Mark Krikorian says he supports letting DACA recipients stay if it comes if it comes with a requirement that employers electronically verify the immigration status of anyone they hire. He also says DACA recipients must be prohibited from getting legal status for their families and that the program can't result in an increase in the overall number of green cards.

Dan Stein of the Federation for American Immigration Reform calls DACA an "unconstitutional abuse of executive authority" and says Congress now has a chance to keep it in place as part of a broader package that may include the border wall, more restrictions on legal immigration and stepped-up deportation efforts.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday that the administration will stop accepting new applications for DACA. Congress will get six months to pass a new version before officials stop renewing permits.

Washington State’s attorney general says he plans to sue the Trump administration over the decision to end a program protecting young immigrants from deportation, an act he said was "a dark time for our country."

Bob Ferguson, who earlier this year sued Trump over the travel ban affecting mostly Muslim nations, said at a news conference Tuesday he would file a lawsuit "very soon."

Attorneys general from California and New York have also indicated they plan legal action. Ferguson said he had been in contact with them.

Earlier Tuesday Attorney General Jeff Sessions said a program, known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA, will end in six months to give Congress time to find a legislative solution for the immigrants. They were brought to the US illegally as children or came with families who overstayed visas.

The attorneys general of California and New York say they are prepared to take legal action against the Trump administration over its decision to end a program for young immigrants who were brought to the US illegally as children or overstayed visas.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (HAH-vee-air Beh-sehr'-ah) says the state is prepared to defend participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. He says his office is evaluating Tuesday's order to end the program in six months and determining what legal arguments to make in a lawsuit.

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (KWOH'-moh) and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman say ending the program allowing hundreds of thousands of immigrants to remain in the United States is cruel and unwarranted.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday the administration will stop accepting new applications for DACA. Congress will get six months to pass a new version before officials stop renewing permits.

Young immigrants are expressing their distress following President Donald Trump's decision to rescind an immigration program for those who were brought to the United States illegally as children.