WASHINGTON– A federal judge on Thursday struck down the Biden administration’s “current parole” policy that granted legal status to certain undocumented people who are married to U.S. citizens.

U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker had previously administratively stayed the regulation, implemented earlier this year as President Joe Biden was running for re-election, while the judge considered the lawsuit brought by Texas and 15 other states. The policy protected select undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens from deportation and allowed them to work legally in the country while seeking citizenship.

In his ruling Thursday on the merits of his case, Barker, an appointee of President-elect Donald Trump during his first term, said Congress had not given the executive branch the authority to implement such a policy. He wrote that “history and purpose confirm that the defendants’ view” of the relevant immigration law “stretches statutory interpretation beyond its limit.”

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

Barker rejected a request from people who benefited from the program to intervene in the case so they could also defend the policy.

The policy would have applied to people who have been living in the United States for 10 years and would have used existing legal authority known as “parole” that offers protection from deportation. In addition to spouses, the policy would also apply to undocumented stepchildren of U.S. citizens.

As CNN previously reported, it was estimated that the program could directly affect between 750,000 and 800,000 people. That could have made it the federal government’s broadest aid program since the 2012 implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which protects undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as minors from deportation. .

DACA itself is currently the target of a years-long legal challenge. Earlier this fall, an appeals court heard arguments over a judge’s ruling that found the DACA program illegal but allowed it to continue for current enrollees while an appeal played out.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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