(Reuters) – A U.S. Federal Judge tossed out a directive from the Biden Administration that limited who could be deported or arrested by immigration agents. He sided with Louisiana and Texas officials challenging this policy.

This directive was finalized by a memorandum from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last September. It directed agents not to target immigrants that pose a danger to national security and public safety but also recent border crossings.

This policy allowed immigration agents and border officers to give migrants the option of being deported without fear. You should also consider the service of a military member or a family member who has been convicted.

This directive is part of a change in U.S immigration enforcement priorities that was undertaken by President Joe Biden’s administration, a Democrat to reverse Trump’s hardline deportation policies.

The latest court decision against Biden came from U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton of Corpus Christi in Texas. He was a Trump appointee and declared the enforcement memo “arbitrary, capricious,” and violated the Administrative Procedures Act.

Tipton’s 96-page opinion stated that Texas and Louisiana have largely supported Biden’s enforcement policy. Tipton blocked an earlier 100-day moratorium by DHS on the majority of deportations within Biden’s first days in office.

A federal court also blocked a version of the DHS enforcement memo that was earlier and more restrictive. It required immigration agents get approval from senior managers before they arrested anyone who didn’t meet certain criteria.

DHS memos had terms that were quite different to Trump’s. Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE (NYSE)) allowed agents to pursue both low-level criminals and those with no long-standing ties to the United States.

Tae Johnson was the ICE director for Biden and he had defended his new policy. He said it was an attempt at prioritizing limited resources in law enforcement to “achieve the highest security impact”

Biden’s softer approach seemed to have made a huge difference in the field. The number of deportations and arrests of immigrant workers in America plummeted between 2020 and 2021, but ICE data from March shows that more were convicted of serious offenses.