WASHINGTON: A judge ruled on Thursday against President Joe Biden’s programme offering a path to citizenship for certain immigrant spouses of US citizens, a blow that could keep the programme blocked through Biden’s final months in office. District judge J. Campbell Barker found the programme, which offers a path to citizenship to around 500,000 immigrants who entered the United States illegally if they are married to US citizens, exceeded Biden’s executive authority. The initiative, known as Keeping Families Together, launched in August but was blocked days later by Barker, who left it frozen while he considered a legal challenge brought by Texas and a coalition of states with Republican attorneys general. Biden, a Democrat, announced the programme in June before dropping out of the presidential race and paving the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to face Republican Donald Trump, an immigration hardliner. Trump is expected to launch a wide-ranging immigration crackdown that would likely include rolling back Biden’s initiative for immigrant spouses, which the Trump campaign called a “mass amnesty” that would encourage illegal immigration. Americans see immigration as the most pressing issue for Trump to address when he takes office in January, and a large majority believe he will order mass deportations of people living in the country illegally, a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Thursday found. The Biden administration could appeal Thursday’s court ruling. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.