Immigrant rights advocates said Monday that they were “deeply troubled” by Trump-appointed judge’s ruling that brought the Biden administration’s protections for undocumented spouses to a grinding halt, just a week after officials began taking applications from couples who wanted to take part in the Keeping Families Together program.

Siding with 16 Republican-led states that sued over the policy, Judge J. Campbell Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued an administrative stay to stop immigration authorities from approving applications.

The judge said the court needed time to determine whether the Biden administration violated the law by introducing the policy without going through the legislative process. Barker said the stay would be in place for 14 days, but Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council said the judge signaled that applications may ultimately be halted until at least mid-October.

“This is obviously devastating for people who would have hoped to benefit from the program, and for their U.S. citizen spouses who were hoping that their loved one could get more permanent status,” said Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the organization.

The Keeping Families Together program, introduced by President Joe Biden in June, is designed to allow undocumented immigrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico........

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