The Biden-Harris administration faced a significant setback in federal court on Thursday in its efforts to grant amnesty to up to half a million undocumented migrants living in the United States.

A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled that President Joe Biden’s executive order, which aimed to create a pathway to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants married to American citizens, is unlawful.

The Biden, announced earlier in the summer, was contested by the Texas attorney general and a coalition of GOP-led states.

“Since day one, the Biden-Harris Administration has dedicated itself to the decimation of our immigration system and the erasure of our borders,” stated Gene Hamilton, the executive director of America First Legal, a conservative organization that led the court challenge against the order. “Time and again, the states stood up.

“And today, the great State of Texas and the courageous Ken Paxton, alongside a coalition of other brave Attorneys General, succeeded in stopping an illegal program that would have provided amnesty to hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens and paved the path for the largest administrative amnesty in American history,” Hamilton continued. “We are proud to stand alongside these patriots in defense of our great nation.”

Biden first announced the executive order in June during a White House event celebrating the 12-year anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the last significant amnesty program established by the federal government.

The order, known as the Keeping Families Together program, would have allowed illegal immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens to apply for lawful permanent residence without needing to leave the country first, according to a fact sheet released by the administration.

Under current law, undocumented immigrants can apply for legal status after marrying a U.S. citizen, but they are required to leave the country to proceed with the process. Biden’s order sought to expand a statutory authority known as “parole-in-place,” allowing those noncitizens to remain in the country while waiting for their applications to be processed, the Daily Caller reported.

The plan indicated that approved undocumented migrants would not only receive lawful permanent residence and work permits but also a pathway to citizenship. The White House anticipated that the order could impact as many as half a million undocumented migrants, while America First Legal estimated that the figure could exceed one million.

America First Legal, in collaboration with Texas, Idaho, and a coalition of 14 state attorneys general, filed a lawsuit in August to block the Biden-Harris administration’s amnesty order. Later that month, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas temporarily halted the program, but Biden vowed to continue the fight.

On Thursday, the court ultimately ruled that the Department of Homeland Security lacked statutory authority to carry out the order.