HOUSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday cleared the way for the U.S. government to forbid Central American immigrants from seeking asylum at the two busiest stretches of the southern border in a partial legal victory for the Trump administration.

The ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allows President Donald Trump to enforce the policy in New Mexico and Texas, rejecting asylum seekers who cross from Mexico into either state. Under Friday’s ruling, U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar’s July 24 order stopping the policy would apply only in California and Arizona, which are covered by the 9th Circuit.

The two busiest areas for unauthorized border crossings are in South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley and the region around El Paso, Texas, which includes New Mexico. Nearly 50,000 people in July crossed the U.S. border without permission in those two regions, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.

The policy would deny asylum to anyone who passes through another country on the way to the U.S. without seeking protection there. Most crossing the southern border are Central Americans fleeing violence and poverty, who would largely be ineligible. The policy would also apply to people from Africa, Asia, and South America who come to the southern border to request asylum.

If the policy is implemented, ineligible migrants who cross in New Mexico and Texas could be detained and more quickly deported. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Under American law, people can request asylum when they arrive in the U.S. regardless of how they enter. The law makes an exception for those who have come through a country considered to be “safe” pursuant to an agreement between the U.S. and that country.

Canada and the U.S. have a “safe third country” agreement. But the U.S. doesn’t have one with Mexico or countries in Central America. The Trump administration has tried to sign one with Guatemala, but the country’s incoming president said this weekthat Guatemala would not be able to uphold a tentative deal reached by his predecessor.

The U.S. government is already turning away many asylum seekers at the southern border.

About 30,000 people have been returned to Mexico to await asylum hearings under the government’s Migrant Protection Protocols program. Tens of thousands of others are waiting in shelters and camps to present themselves to U.S. border agents at official ports of entry that have strict daily limits on asylum seekers.

Mexico’s asylum system is itself overwhelmed, and there are widespread reports of migrants being attacked and extorted . Border cities across from New Mexico and Texas include Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, and Reynosa, all of which are well-known for their violence and gang presence.

Tigar had ruled the policy could expose migrants to violence and abuse, deny their rights under international law, and return them to countries they were fleeing.

The appeals court ruled that Tigar’s order hadn’t considered whether a nationwide order was necessary and that there wasn’t enough evidence presented yet to conclude that it was. The court instructed Tigar to “further develop the record in support of a preliminary injunction” extending nationwide.

Judges Mark Bennett and Milan Smith voted to limit Tigar’s order. Judge A. Wallace Tashima dissented.

Tigar is a nominee of former President Barack Obama. Trump previously derided Tigar as an “Obama judge” after Tigar ruled against another set of asylum restrictions last year. That comment led to an unusual rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts, who said the judiciary did not have “Obama judges or Clinton judges.”

Trump nominated Bennett, while Smith was nominated by former President George W. Bush. Tashima was nominated by former President Bill Clinton.

The American Civil Liberties Union and other legal groups sued the Trump administration after it announced the restrictions last month.

“We will continue fighting to end the ban entirely and permanently,” said Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the ACLU.

The Department of Justice declined to comment.

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BURLINGTON, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a mother and her two young children have been killed in a house fire in eastern Kansas.

Coffey County Sheriff Randy Rogers says a fourth person suffered severe burns Friday morning while escaping from the home in Burlington. The survivor was flown to an area burn center.

Rogers didn’t identify any of the victims, pending notification of their relatives. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The first Catholic priest in the U.S. to be labeled sexually violent when he was convicted in Illinois was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for abusing two boys in Missouri in the 1990s.

Fred Lenczycki, 75, pleaded guilty in May to two counts of sodomy for crimes that occurred from 1991 to 1994, when he served a parish in north St. Louis County. He was sentenced to 10-year sentences for each count, to run concurrently.

Lenczycki admitted grabbing the genitals of one boy and trying to force the other to expose himself. Though the crimes occurred more than 25 years ago, Lenczycki wasn’t charged until February.

Lenczycki apologized in a brief statement in court. His attorney, Matthew Radefeld, called the sentence “disappointing” because Lenczycki has been undergoing counseling and “made great strides.”

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, in a statement, called Lenczycki a “monster whose actions have affected countless victims and stolen the lives of countless children.”

One of the victims, Charlie Gensler III, now 37, called the sentence “a great step toward our healing and exposing the sexual abuse that occurs within the Catholic Church.” But, he said, the pain will never go away.

“Even though I’m happy with the sentence, it is basically all of us who are condemned to a life sentence of pain, grief and suffering,” Gensler said.

Lenczycki was removed from the ministry in 2002, when he was charged with sexually abusing three boys in the 1980s at a church in Hinsdale, Illinois. Those victims told authorities “Father Fred” repeatedly molested them, often using the pretense of swaddling them in “Baby Jesus” costumes for pageants that never took place.

Lenczycki pleaded guilty in 2004 and was sentenced to five years in prison. In 2008, a year before his release, he became the first U.S. priest to be labeled sexually violent when he was committed under Illinois’ Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act.

Church and court files show that Lenczycki admitted abusing up to 30 boys in Illinois, Missouri and California over 25 years. He now lives in suburban Chicago.

Victims of clergy sexual abuse have demanded more accountability and transparency from the Catholic church since last year, when a Pennsylvania report detailed seven decades of child sexual abuse by predator priests. The Vatican convened a sexual abuse summit in February to hear the testimony of several victims.

In addition to the criminal cases, Lenczycki is named in several lawsuits.