A Florida federal judge on Thursday night temporarily blocked the Biden administration from releasing migrants into the US without notices to appear in court, arguing that the controversial new policy is similar to one struck down earlier this year.    

The temporary restraining order was issued by District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II and took effect at 11:59 p.m. EDT Thursday, corresponding with the expiration of Title 42, the pandemic-era policy that allowed for the swift removal of migrants apprehended crossing the border.

Thousands of migrants were already believed to have been released from Border Patrol custody earlier Thursday under the Biden administration’s new directive to simply start releasing asylum seekers, without giving them court dates to plead their cases or any ability to track where in the country they are.

The restraining order will be in effect for two weeks. The judge noted that the government has “an opportunity to seek an emergency stay from a higher court.”

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody sued the Biden administration on Thursday arguing that a memo issued by Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz on Wednesday was a  “materially identical” policy to Parole + ATD, another Biden administration practice of using humanitarian parole and “alternatives to detention” to mass release migrants, which critics refer to as “catch and release.”

Parole + ATD was struck down by Wetherell in March.

Wetherell indicated that “Florida has a substantial likelihood of success” in challenging the Biden administration’s plan to mass release migrants “because the challenged policy appears to be materially indistinguishable from the Parole+ATD policy vacated in Florida — both in its purpose (reducing overcrowding at border patrol facilities) and manner of operation (releasing aliens into the country without first issuing a charging document placing them in immigration proceedings and simply directing the aliens to report to ICE within a specified period for further processing).”

In Wetherell’s scathing critique of the Biden administration, he calls the crisis at the border a “problem” that is “largely one of [the administration’s] own making through the adoption an implementation of policies that have encouraged the so-called ‘irregular migration’ that has become fairly regular over the past 2 years.”

Moody celebrated the order after it came down. 

“We took swift action to protect the American people from [Biden’s] unlawful plan to release thousands of illegal immigrants when Title 42 lifts in an hour. I am grateful for the quick decision by the federal judge,” Moody said in a tweet.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Wednesday that the new policy would apply to a “fraction” of the people apprehended, but the government argued in court that it was desperately needed to prevent overcrowding at processing facilities and that there would be “extremely dire and catastrophic consequences” without the policy in place.

Customs and Border Protection called Wetherell’s order “harmful,” but said it would abide by the ruling.

“CBP will comply with the court order and is assessing next steps. This is a harmful ruling that will result in unsafe overcrowding at CBP facilities and undercut our ability to efficiently process and remove migrants, and risks creating dangerous conditions for border patrol agents and migrants.”

Wetherell set a preliminary injunction hearing for May 19, according to the order, and the Biden administration is expected to appeal the ruling.