WASHINGTON >> A federal judge agreed on Friday to block the Trump administration from dismantling an independent agency that distributes grant money to community development groups in Latin American and Caribbean countries.

U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan ruled that the administration doesn’t have the authority to remove the head of the Inter-American Foundation, which is governed by a bipartisan nine-member board. Congress created the foundation more than 50 years ago. It has disbursed $945 million to thousands of grant recipients in roughly three dozen countries. AliKhan, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, found that Congress had only given the foundation’s board the authority to fire its head.

“Because neither President Trump nor Mr. Marocco had the authority to fire her from her position as the president of the IAF, Ms. Aviel is likely to succeed on the merits of her case,” AliKhan wrote in the preliminary injunction.

On Feb. 19, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for dramatically reducing the size of the federal government. It listed the IAF as one of the agencies targeted for cuts. Representatives of billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency showed up at the foundation’s offices on Feb. 20.

Several days later, the White House removed all of the agency’s board members, fired Sara Aviel as president and CEO of the IAF and appointed Pete Marocco as the agency’s acting board chair.