New York (CNN) A three-judge federal appeals panel on Friday grappled with what authority the Trump administration has and doesn't have to terminate the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The hearing in the 2nd US District Court of Appeals, centered around how the administration moved to end DACA, not the legality of the DACA program itself.

Judge Dennis Jacobs asked lawyers representing the plaintiffs whether they believed the Department of Homeland Security Secretary has the authority to end the program which protects from deportation undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children.

"Why can't it be undone by a memo?," Jacobs asked Anisha Dasgupta, who's representing the state of New York.

"It could," she responded, adding that at issue is the reasoning for the termination.

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