Bismarck, N.D. (AP) — Young adult immigrants known as “Dreamers” in 19 U.S. states will be temporarily blocked from getting health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s public marketplace, a federal judge has ruled, limiting an effort by the Biden administration to help immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.

Judge Daniel Traynor of the U.S. District Court in North Dakota issued the order Monday from Bismarck, dealing a setback to a Biden administration rule that was estimated to allow 147,000 immigrants to enroll for coverage. Traynor’s ruling came in a lawsuit filed over the policy and will remain in effect until the matter can go to trial.

The ruling applies to immigrants in 19 states where Republican attorneys general sued to avoid having to comply with the new policy. They cited concern over immigrants possibly qualifying for public subsidies available to many people insured under the ACA.

The GOP state officials argued that the rule created earlier this year by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would be a strong incentive for immigrants to remain in the U.S. illegally and could create costs for states. They argued that both the Affordable Care Act and a 1996 law prohibit U.S. government benefits flowing to immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

“Dreamers” are part of a program that makes them a low priority for deportation. However, President-elect Donald Trump won the Nov. 5 election promising “the largest mass deportation program in history.” He will succeed President Joe Biden on Jan. 20.

Traynor, a Trump appointee during his first term in office, concluded through what he called “a commonsense inference” that access to subsidized ACA coverage is a powerful incentive for people to remain in the U.S. illegally, creating a substantial risk that states will “suffer monetary harm.”

Federal law gives CMS the authority to determine whether someone is living in the U.S. legally, but, Traynor wrote, “It by no means allows the agency to circumvent congressional authority and redefine the term ‘lawfully present.’”

CMS said in a statement Tuesday that it is reviewing the lawsuit but does not comment on litigation.

Nicholas Espíritu, deputy legal director of the National Immigration Law Center, said some “Dreamers” have been waiting for more than a decade to get “life-sustaining” health coverage through the ACA.

“Judge Traynor’s ruling is both disappointing and wrong on the law,” Espíritu said, promising his group would continue to fight the issue.

Kansas and North Dakota are the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in August. They’ve been joined by Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

“Thankfully, the court put another nail in the coffin of Biden’s radical left-wing agenda,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement Tuesday.