A federal judge has struck down Biden’s immigration policy protecting selected spouses of undocumented US citizens from deportation.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Thursday overturned the Biden administration’s “parole” policy that gave legal status to some undocumented people married to U.S. citizens.

U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker earlier imposed an administrative stay on the order put in place earlier this year when President Joe Biden was running for re-election as the judge considered a lawsuit brought by Texas and 15 other states. The policy protected selected spouses of undocumented U.S. citizens from deportation and allowed them to work legally in the country as they pursued citizenship.

In his decision Thursday on the merits of the case, Barker, appointed by President-elect Donald Trump during his first term, said Congress had not granted the executive branch the authority to enact such policies. He wrote that “history and purpose confirm that defendants’ views” of the relevant immigration law “exceed the scope of its critical interpretation.”

The case is one of several ongoing legal challenges to Biden administration policies that the incoming Trump administration may refuse to defend once the White House changes hands.

Barker rejected a request from those benefiting from the program to intervene in the case so they could also defend the policy.

The policy would apply to people who have lived in the United States for 10 years and would use an existing legal authority known as “parole,” which provides protection from deportation. In addition to spouses, the policy will also apply to illegal stepchildren of US citizens.

As CNN previously reported, it is estimated that the program could directly affect between 750,000 and 800,000 people. That could make it the federal government’s largest relief program since the 2012 implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as minors from deportation.

DACA itself is currently the subject of years of litigation. Earlier this fall, the appeals court heard arguments over a judge’s ruling that the DACA program was illegal but allowed it to continue for current participants while the appeal was pending.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Lauren Fox, Edward-Isaac Dover and Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.