ST. PAUL — Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson is joining a nationwide lawsuit seeking to protect a program for immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.

President Donald Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program earlier this year and called on Congress to replace it. Former President Barack Obama created the program in 2012 to give hundreds of thousands of immigrants permits to work.

Swanson said she wants to “stop the rug from being pulled out” from under 800,000 so-called Dreamers in the program. She filed a brief Monday in the federal case surrounding Trump’s decision to rescind the program.

Swanson is running in a three-way Democratic primary for governor on Aug. 14. She has been criticized by some Democrats as not being aggressive enough in challenging the Trump administration.