Federal judge's DACA ruling underscores the human cost of congressional inaction

A federal judge in Texas dealt a searing blow to the hundreds of thousands of immigrants protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program Friday, casting their lives once again into legal limbo while underscoring the devastating human cost of Congress' inability to act.

Recipients of DACA, a program created by President Barack Obama in 2012 to shield from deportation undocumented immigrants who were brought to this country as children, have lived in uncertainty for years as the battle over their status played out in the courts and lawmakers in Washington failed to deliver on their promise of a permanent solution.