A U.S. appeals court on Thursday allowed President Donald Trump to maintain his deployment of national guard troops in Los Angeles amid protests over stepped-up immigration enforcement, temporarily pausing a lower court ruling that blocked the mobilization.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals¡¯ decision does not mean that the court will ultimately agree with Trump, but it does leave command of the guard with the president for now.

Earlier on Thursday, San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer found that Trump¡¯s deployment of the guard was unlawful. Breyer¡¯s 36-page ruling had ordered the national guard to return to the control of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had brought the case.