On Monday, a federal judge in the Eastern District of Texas temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s program It allowed undocumented immigrants married to US citizens to apply for green cards without leaving the United States
The White House program, called Keeping Families Together, will provide a form of legal aid known as “parole in situ” to undocumented spouses of American citizens who can prove they have lived in the United States continuously for at least 10 years. a set of other requirements.
Typically, undocumented immigrants married to US citizens must leave the country to apply for green cards and eventually citizenship, risking years or even permanent separation from their families. If granted parole, it would allow them to apply without leaving the United States
The White House estimated that 500,000 people are eligible for the program, and federal immigration agencies began accepting applications on August 19. sued Friday to stop the programleads to temporary blocking of the judge.
When Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit, he said the program “directly violates laws created by Congress.”
U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker wrote in his decision that the states’ claims are “substantial and warrant closer scrutiny than the court has been able to afford to date.”
Barker’s ruling orders the government to end parole under the program, but does not order the government to stop accepting applications. Immigrants can still apply for the program, but their applications will not be processed until the stay is revoked.
The states that filed the suit were assisted by America First Legal, a group founded and led by Stephen Miller, former President Donald Trump’s senior counsel and the architect of many of his administration’s immigration policies. Miller called Monday’s ruling a “huge victory.” news release.
Immigrants hoping to benefit from the program expressed sadness and disappointment. “It’s heartbreaking,” said Foday Turay, who was brought to the United States from Sierra Leone as a child and now works as a prosecutor in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.
Turay was also a migratory group filed a motion to intervene in the court proceedings Monday to defend the program along with the Justice Department. He is married to an American woman from New Jersey, with whom he has a 1-year-old son.
“My wife and I really depended on it to get on with our lives and plan for our future,” he said. “It feels like a knife in the heart.”