By Mica Rosenberg and Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK, Feb 28 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal appeals court in San Francisco, California on Friday blocked a Trump administration policy that has forced tens of thousands of migrants to wait in Mexico for months for hearings in U.S. immigration courts.

A panel of three judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals said the policy conflicted with the text and congressional purpose of U.S. immigration laws.

The program, which began a year ago and is called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), is one of the most dramatic immigration policy changes enacted by the Trump administration. (Reporting by Mica Rosenberg and Jonathan Stempel Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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