Right-wing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s despicable executive order targeting migrants continues to face defeat in the courts. George W. Bush-appointed U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone, who temporarily halted the order following a Department of Justice-led lawsuit, on Thursday issued an injunction continuing to block the policy while litigation continues.

Thursday’s order stems from a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and ACLU of Texas on behalf on migrant organizations and volunteers who assist newly arrived asylum-seekers. That included humanitarian worker Jennifer Harbury, who was blocked by Abbott from driving an asylum-seeker to an immigration appointment, or even just to a movie. 

“I recently assisted a woman and her little boy who were kidnapped three times in Reynosa, Mexico,” Harbury said in a statement earlier this month. “She was gang raped in front of her child. I loved driving them to the movies, to ride a tricycle in the park—the normal things after so much trauma. If the governor thinks he’s going to scare me off from doing that, I’d say to him, ‘Just go home, Mr. Abbott, just go home.’”

Thankfully, Abbott will not be able to do that for now. “With the court’s injunction, our plaintiffs—including shelter providers, humanitarians, and immigrants living in Texas—will be able to live their lives and provide refuge for asylum seekers free from the threat of having their vehicles impounded or being forced to drive to the border,” said ACLU of Texas attorney Kate Huddleston. 

Cardone had earlier this month temporarily halted Abbott’s order following the Department of Justice lawsuit, ruling it caused “irreparable injury to the United States and to individuals the United States is charged with protecting, jeopardizing the health and safety of noncitizens in federal custody.” Houston Public Media reports Cardone’s ruling would have expired Friday. The report said the Department of Justice case has now been consolidated with the ACLU and ACLU of Texas case, which was launched on behalf of Harbury, Angry Tías & Abuelas of the Rio Grande Valley, FIEL Houston, and Annunciation House, one of the largest migrant shelters in the nation.

The ACLU and ACLU of Texas had said that under Abbott’s order, “shelters can no longer pick up asylum seekers or take them to get food, attend court hearings, or see doctors. The vast majority of migrants leave the border by bus, and are unable to join family members in other parts of Texas and other states. And Texans now face a harsh regime of arbitrary arrests by state officers, who are empowered to stop and question a driver they suspect of transporting asylum seekers, and to seize their vehicles or force them to drive to the border.”

In July 29 tweet initially reacting to Abbott’s order, Annunciation House responded simply: “’Whatever you refuse to the least of these brothers of mine, you refuse to me.’—Matthew 25:45.”

“Our clients brought this lawsuit because the executive order is illegal and inhumane,” said ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project Staff Attorney Spencer Amdur. “Texas Gov. Greg Abbott launched an unprecedented attack on migrants and the federal immigration system, and the court was right to block the order.” Huddleston said “[t]his is the first step to ensuring that this latest assault on Texans’ civil rights and effort to scapegoat immigrants by the governor is unsuccessful.”