The Trump administration overstepped its authority by moving to revoke legal protections for Haitian citizens legally in the U.S. in the coming weeks, a federal judge ruled.

But the ruling issued late Tuesday may be a temporary reprieve for those living in Maine and other states because the protections are due to expire in February unless extended.

The Department of Homeland Security announced earlier this week that it was terminating temporary protected status, or TPS, effective in September for some 500,000 Haitians living in the United States, including at least 200 in Maine, according to the state’s Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project.

A TPS designation allows people to live in America when their homelands are deemed unsafe because of wars or natural disasters. Unlike asylum applications, which much be filed individually, TPS applies broadly to entire nationalities. The Biden administration had previously extended Haiti’s TPS designation through February 2026.

But in a formal notice issued Tuesday, DHS said Haiti’s TPS designation would expire in August and be terminated in September, adding that “it is contrary to the national interest” for Haitian nationals to remain in America. The agency’s memo said conditions had improved enough for Haitians to return home while simultaneously noting the country remains embroiled in violent armed conflict and lacks a stable central government.

Hours later, a federal judge in New York reversed DHS’ decision. District Court Judge Brian M. Cogan ruled DHS exceeded its authority by terminating Haitians’ legal protections before TPS was set to expire next year.

“Because Secretary Noem does not have statutory or inherent authority to partially vacate a country’s TPS designation, her partial vacatur must be set aside as unlawful under the (Administrative Procedure Act,)” Cogan wrote in his decision.

DHS did not immediately return an email seeking comment about the agency’s decision to terminate Haiti’s TPS or Cogan’s ruling reversing it.

The decision was celebrated by immigration activists nationwide. The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti described it as “a major legal victory” in a statement.

“We will continue to prepare to challenge the expected decision to not renew TPS in February, as we did successfully in 2018,” the U.S.-based nonprofit’s statement read. “We do expect the administration to appeal, perhaps taking paths not supported by settled precedent. But we will keep fighting there too.”

Haiti has been under TPS since 2010, when an earthquake devastated the island nation. It has since been marred by constant civil war and armed conflict plus additional earthquakes and hurricanes in recent years.

Cogan noted that plaintiffs in the case “have enrolled in schools, taken jobs and begun courses of medical treatment in the United State in reliance on Haiti’s TPS designation lasting until at least February.”

DHS’ termination of Haiti’s legal protections would have opened hundreds of thousands of people up to deportation when it would have taken effect in early September. Cogan’s decision gives Haitian immigrants at least six more months to prepare for the potential end of their TPS designation.

Maine immigration advocates and nonprofits panned the administration’s termination of TPS.

Sue Roche, director of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, said her organization works with hundreds of Haitians in Maine under TPS. The organization said terminating Haiti’s TPS could hurt Maine’s blueberry farms and Christmas tree industry, both of which rely on Haitian immigrants for seasonal work.

The termination of Haiti’s TPS implies the country is safe enough to return to, Roche said this week, a notion that contradicts the agency ‘s own travel advisories, which warn against travel to Haiti because of the risk of mob killings and gang-related kidnappings.

“The country is experiencing extreme violence, rampant kidnappings, and one of the highest rates of food insecurity in the world,” Roche said in a statement. “We expect to see swift challenges in the courts and continue to call on Maine’s Congressional delegation to take action to protect TPS holders and other immigrant communities in Maine.”