Judge Jia Cobb had claimed that the administration’s move in March to eliminate CHNV protections is illegal and offers the migrants no due process and said it evinced irreparable harm for migrants.

In its ruling, the three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the previous judge’s claim of the risk of irreparable harm was not sufficient to block the administration’s policy change.

“We recognize the risks of irreparable harm persuasively laid out in the district court’s order: that parolees who lawfully arrived in this country were suddenly forced to choose between leaving in less than a month — a choice that potentially includes being separated from their families, communities, and lawful employment and returning to dangers in their home countries,” the judges said, according to the Associated Press. “But absent a strong showing of likelihood of success on the merits, the risk of such irreparable harms cannot, by itself, support a stay.”