The Department of Homeland Security must reverse course on changes to a humanitarian immigration relief program for abandoned and abused young people, under an order issued by U.S. District Judge John Koeltl of the Southern District of New York Tuesday.

The district court found the department was in violation of federal law when it made unannounced changes in early 2018 to its handling of special immigrant juvenile petitions coming out of New York State family courts. The order laid out the details of how federal immigration authorities were to handle previously denied petitions, while demanding going forward they refrain from deviating from policies that were in place before 2018.