A federal judge on Friday blocked Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem from ending temporary legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and Haitians.

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ruled that Noem’s efforts to revoke the Biden administration’s extensions of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) were arbitrary and capricious and exceeded her authority, so they must be set aside.

“The Secretary’s action in revoking TPS was not only unprecedented in the manner and speed in which it was taken but also violates the law,” Chen wrote in his 69-page opinion. 

Chen is an appointee of former President Obama who serves in San Francisco. 

The TPS program provides temporary status to migrants who cannot safely return to their home countries due to extraordinary conditions like armed conflict, earthquakes, and floods. It can enable the migrants to live and work in the U.S.

Venezuela and Haiti were among the countries designated for the program, but Noem after assuming her post began taking steps to end the protections for more than 1.1 million people. The administration defended the terminations as lawful and said conditions had improved. 

“For decades the TPS program has been abused, exploited, and politicized as a de facto amnesty program. Its use has been all the more dangerous given the millions of unvetted illegal aliens the Biden Administration let into this country,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement. 

“While this order delays justice, Secretary Noem will use every legal option at the Department’s disposal to end this chaos and prioritize the safety of Americans,” the statement continued. “Under God, the people rule. Unelected activist judges cannot stop the will of the American people for a safe and secure homeland.” 

The National TPS Alliance sued alongside a group of individuals in February to halt Noem’s efforts. After they won a more limited ruling from Chen at an earlier stage of the case, the Supreme Court in May intervened in the Trump administration’s favor.

Chen said that emergency decision did not preclude him from moving ahead now with a permanent ruling on the plaintiffs’ claims. He acknowledged the likelihood that the matter will be appealed to the Supreme Court, again, now that he has entered his decision.

Separate litigation remains ongoing over the future of TPS for people from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua.