A federal judge in California ordered the Trump administration on Wednesday to restore deportation protections for more than 60,000 Nicaraguans, Hondurans and Nepalis.

U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson said the Trump administration had improperly terminated Temporary Protected Status for the three countries. She said the federal government had failed to follow administrative procedures when ending TPS by not properly reviewing conditions in the countries involved or consulting other agencies in the process. She also rejected the government’s motion to shut down the lawsuit, finding that there was evidence of racial animus on the part of the administration.

“The rule of law demands that when executive officials exceed their authority, they must be held to account. The Administrative Procedures Act ensures government accountability by making agencies transparent, require public participation, setting fair rulemaking standards, and allowing courts to review actions for legality and rationality,” Thompson wrote.

The decision means that for now — at least until the government makes a near-certain appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court — tens of thousands of Nicaraguans, Nepalis and Hondurans already in the United States have their deportation protections and work permits restored. That includes long-time residents of South Florida, home to large communities of Hondurans and Nicaraguans. One of the plaintiffs in the case is a 67-year-old cleaner from Nicaragua and Miami resident who has lived in the United States for almost 30 years.

The ruling is the latest development in the legal battle over the future of hundreds of thousands of immigrants that spans several court cases, as the Trump administration fights to end TPS for several countries as part of its radical reshaping of the country’s federal immigration system.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to the Miami Herald about Wednesday’s decision. Meanwhile, the National TPS Alliance, which sued the Trump administration over the terminations, along with seven Nicaraguans, Nepalis, and Hondurans, celebrated the ruling.

“This victory gives hope to over 60,0000 people who have lost their TPS and are in danger of deportation. This gives us hope to continue organizing and we hope that Congress can find a solution to this problem,” said Jose Palma, spokesperson for the alliance.

Jhony Silva, a 29-year-old Honduran who is among the seven plaintiffs that sued along with the organization in July, said the court’s order was a “tremendous relief.” He added that the government’s decision to end the program had “wreaked havoc” for him and others.

“I have lived in the United States since I was three years old, but I lost my job as a certified nursing assistant because of the termination, and had to stop my studies to become a nurse. I hope that this means my child and I can be secure in the United States for the time being,” he said in a statement.

Thompson had previously certified Honduran nationals with TPS, Nepalese nationals with TPS, and Nicaraguan nationals with TPS as protected classes. She had ruled that the government restore the protections in July, but the Ninth Circuit Court stayed the preliminary order without weighing on the merits. That had allowed the Trump administration terminations to go forward until Wednesday.

In her decision, the judge said the government had not addressed “food insecurity in Nepal, staggering crime in Honduras or humanitarian crises in Nicaragua.” Thompson also cited comments from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security, and President Donald Trump that characterized immigrants and TPS holders as criminals and murderers.

“Although today’s times seem to be flooded with crises and emergencies––whether speculative, genuine, or contrived––our Constitution remains an important protection from unbridled power. Unilateral power has never been American. Nor has this country ignored the importance of humanitarian relief,” the judge wrote.

Emi MacLean, a lawyer from the ACLU Of Northern California, called the ruling “extraordinary.”

“The beneficiaries can start the year knowing they are protected, they can go back to work, they can rest easy knowing that they’re not at risk of deportation and they can remain in the United States with their families,” said MacLean, one of several lawyers representing the plaintiffs.

The Trump administration has moved to strip protections from hundreds of thousands of TPS beneficiaries from several countries and has ended the protections for Venezuelans, Haitians, Ethiopians, Burmese and South Sudanese. The Department of Homeland Security has engaged in fierce litigation to uphold the terminations as recipients and organizations across the country fight to keep their protections.

Congress created Temporary Protected Status in 1999 for immigrants who were already in the United States and could not safely return to their home countries due to conditions there. To receive TPS, immigrants must have already been in the U.S. before a certain cutoff date, apply for the protections and pass background checks. The Secretary of Homeland Security has the authority to designate a country for TPS, and the agency reviews country conditions periodically to determine whether to renew or end the status.

Nicaragua received Temporary Protected Status in 1998 after Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America. There were nearly 3,000 Nicaraguan beneficiaries as of September, according to the Congressional Research Service. Political conditions in the country have worsened as President Daniel Ortega solidifies his rule over the Central American country and arrests opposition leaders, even stripping hundreds of their citizenship.

However, no administration expanded Nicaragua’s protections to include more people beyond the original designation. The Department of Homeland Security ended it in July, and a spokesperson emphasized that TPS was “never meant to last a quarter of a century.”

Honduras also received TPS in 1998 after the devastating storm, and there were over 51,000 recipients under the program as of September. The Obama administration granted TPS for Nepalis already in the U.S. in April 2015, after a devastating earthquake killed more than 8,000 people in the South Asian country.

Given the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to ending TPS, it’s likely that the government will appeal Thompson’s decision. But on Wednesday, recipients and lawyers had a reprieve.

“We don’t expect this to be the last word,” McLean said. “But for now, it’s a very good new year.”

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