"It is unconscionable for the Trump administration to circumvent the rulings of a federal court in order to once again thrust into uncertainty the families and communities who rely on DACA to stay together and for protection from unjust deportations," said Vanessa Esparza-Lopez, an attorney at the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago.
Immigrant advocates say it's clear that the administration is preparing to rescind the popular program again but postponing that until after the November election.
"Trump's announcement today lays the groundwork to kill the DACA program and confirms what we have long said: DACA is on the ballot in November," said Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles, which helped bring one of the cases the Supreme Court decided last month.
After that high court ruling, a federal judge in Maryland ordered the Trump administration to restore DACA to its status in September 2017, when the program was in full swing.
Still, the Trump administration continued to reject new applicants, despite growing calls to fully restart DACA from immigrants and their allies in Congress.
On Tuesday, the White House defended the decision not to accept new DACA applications on a call with reporters.
When asked how that decision could be reconciled with the Maryland court ruling, a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the memo from Wolf was an "intervening action" that makes that decision moot.
When reporters asked whether the administration expects to face further litigation over the memo, the official said simply: "Yes, of course."