(CNN) A federal appeals court in California grappled on Tuesday with a case regarding the Trump administration's legal justifications for terminating DACA, the Obama-era program that protects young undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children from deportation.

The three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals seemed concerned about how the Trump administration decided to unwind the DACA program, whether the move had violated the equal protection rights of the recipients and if the court should take presidential tweets and statements in consideration as they considered the case.

Although the Trump administration announced plans to phase out the program last September, three judges in different districts across the country have temporarily blocked the government from doing so and ordered that renewals under the program should continue while the cases play out in court.

At issue is not the legality of the program, but how the government chose to wind it down. Supporters of the roughly 700,000 "Dreamers" who could be impacted, say the administration's actions were arbitrary and in violation of federal law.

Last fall the challengers won the first round when Judge William Alsup, of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, issued a preliminary nationwide injunction and ordered that renewals under the program continue.

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