A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Biden administration to end the expedited release of migrants illegally entering the United States from Mexico, potentially straining already overcrowded reception facilities.

The order will take effect for a week to give the government time to appeal. The Departments of Homeland Security and Justice did not immediately comment.

By declaring an important administrative tool illegal, U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II offered a scathing assessment of President Biden’s border policies in a 109-page opinion, which followed a January trial in Pensacola, Fla.

The government has “effectively turned the southwest border into a meaningless line in the sand and little more than a speed bump for aliens pouring into the country,” he wrote.

Wetherell, a President Trump appointee, criticized a decision to stop building a border wall, end a policy of making asylum seekers in Mexico wait for hearings in the US immigration court and shift enforcement priorities. He also accused the government of ending family detention at the border, a decision officials are beginning to reconsider.

Collectively, these actions were akin to posting a flashing Come in, were open sign at the southern border, the judge wrote.

Wetherell’s language echoed Republican talking points that blamed everyone

the borders

border issues on Biden. While the numbers have soared in the past two years, his predecessors, Trump and Barack Obama, continued to face similar challenges.

Today’s ruling confirms what we’ve known all along: President Biden is responsible for the border crisis and his illegal immigration policies are making this country less safe,” said Ashley Moody, Florida’s Republican attorney general, who sued on behalf of the state in 2021 . A federal judge is now ordering Biden to follow the law, and his administration must immediately begin securing the border to protect the American people.

At issue is the government’s increasing use of parole to quickly release migrants from border police custody to continue their immigration affairs. They are usually told to report to immigration authorities within two months and are tracked with a mobile device.

The Border Patrol paroled 572,575 migrants last year, including a record

-high

130,563 in December. Parole fell 96% to 5,225 migrants in January after the government announced measures to deter Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans from crossing the border illegally and instead seeking protection by applying online, a financial sponsor and enter the US at an airport.

Parole is much faster than the time-consuming work of agents issuing notices to appear in immigration court. It has dramatically reduced overcrowding at Border Patrol facilities,

where the number of details

hovered around 12,000 late last year, but fell below 5,000 in January.

Immigration advocates warned Wetherell’s ruling could make conditions worse.

If enacted, this decision will pose greater health and safety risks to detained migrants and put more pressure on our agents at the border, said Jennie Murray, chair of the National Immigration Forum.

Spagat reported from San Diego.