DENVER — Colorado’s governor says the state will join a lawsuit by 15 other states and the District of Columbia challenging President Donald Trump’s plan to end a program that protects young immigrants from deportation.

Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper said in a Wednesday statement that the futures of more than 17,000 Colorado residents are at risk.

The lawsuit was filed in New York on Sept. 6.

The Trump administration says the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will end in six months to give Congress time to find a legislative solution for the immigrants, who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or came with families who overstayed visas.

The lawsuit says the plan is motivated by bias against Mexicans. Opponents of the program, enacted by President Barack Obama, call it an unconstitutional abuse of executive power.

California has filed its own lawsuit against the plan.