Sixteen Republican-led states have filed suit to end a federal program that could potentially provide a path to citizenship for nearly half a million immigrants who do not have legal status but are married to U.S. citizens.
The coalition filed suit on Friday to stop the program launched by President Joe Biden in June, saying in court documents that the administration bypassed Congress to create a path to citizenship for “obvious political reasons.”
“This measure encourages illegal immigration and will cause irreparable harm to the plaintiff states,” says the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Tyler, Texas.
Under the arrangement, which began accepting applications on Monday, many undocumented spouses will be able to apply for a so-called “parole in place” that will allow them to stay in the United States, apply for a green card and eventually become American citizens.
But in an election year where immigration is one of the biggest issues, the program is particularly controversial, with many Republicans attacking the policy, claiming it is essentially a form of amnesty for lawbreakers.
“Immigration disaster”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement Friday that the plan “violates the Constitution and actively exacerbates the disaster of illegal immigration that is harming Texas and our country.”
The lawsuit, filed against the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and other Biden administration officials, accuses the agency of paroling spouses “en masse,” which the states say is an abuse of power. The states have also filed a motion to suspend the program while the litigation continues.
In a post on X, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said her state is challenging the parole policy because she believes the Biden administration is “using ‘parole’ illegally and in a systematic way to advance its open borders agenda.”
The conservative nonprofit America First Legal, led by Stephen Miller, a former adviser to former President Donald Trump, is serving as co-counsel in the lawsuit.
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Mayra Alejandra said the agency will defend the Keeping Families Together program in court and will continue to process submitted applications and accept new applications.
“Keeping Families Together is based on a well-known legal foundation, and its purpose – to enable families of U.S. citizens to live together without fear of separation – is consistent with fundamental American values,” said Alejandra.
White House spokesman Angelo Fernández Hernández said Republicans were “playing politics” and called the lawsuit another form of family separation.
The nonpartisan immigration and criminal justice organization FWD.us said the program was in line with the law, pointing to the timing of the lawsuit – when Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic presidential nomination.
“The only motives behind this lawsuit are the cruelty with which families are being torn apart and the blatant political hope that a judge will act in the interests of anti-immigration activists,” the organization said in a statement.
The lawsuit alleges that states must bear the burden of additional immigrants remaining in the country.
Texas, the lawsuit says, spends tens of millions of dollars each year on a program that provides health insurance for children, including those living in the country illegally. The state also spends millions each year “to increase law enforcement as its citizens suffer rising crime, unemployment, environmental damage and social unrest due to illegal immigration.”
Concern about wages
Because the program’s beneficiaries would be eligible for a work permit, these additional workers would “depress the wages of the Texas population, thereby directly harming the state and its citizens,” the lawsuit states.
Evelyn Wiese, an immigration attorney at American Immigrant Justice, called the lawsuit an attack on mixed-status families who have spent years serving their communities across the United States.
“The attempt to tear these families apart and deny them a legal path to U.S. residency is cruel and shows an extremist anti-immigrant mentality,” she said.
