Sixteen Republican-led states are suing to end a federal program that could potentially give nearly half a million immigrants without legal status who are married to U.S. citizens a path to citizenship.
The coalition filed suit Friday to halt the program launched by President Joe Biden in June. In court filings, the coalition said the administration bypassed Congress to create a pathway to citizenship for “blatant political purposes.”
“This action incentivizes illegal immigration and will irreparably harm the Plaintiff states,” the suit filed in federal court in Tyler, Texas, says.
Under the policy, which started taking applications Monday, many spouses without legal status can apply for something called “parole in place,” which offers permission to stay in the U.S., apply for a green card, and eventually get on a path to citizenship.
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But the program has been particularly contentious in an election year where immigration is one of the biggest issues, with many Republicans attacking the policy and contending it is essentially a form of amnesty for people who broke the law.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement Friday that the plan "violates the Constitution and actively worsens the illegal immigration disaster that is hurting Texas and our country.”
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The suit filed against the Department of Homeland Security, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and other Biden administration officials accuses the agency of attempting to parole spouses “en masse,” which the states contend is an abuse of power.
The Department of Homeland Security and the White House did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' request for comment.
In a post on X, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said her state is challenging the parole in place policy because she believes the Biden administration “is illegally using ‘parole’ in a systematic way to advance their open-borders agenda.”
The bipartisan immigration and criminal justice organization FWD.us said the program complied with the law and noted the lawsuit's timing — as Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for president.
“The only motivation behind this lawsuit is the cruelty of tearing families apart and the crass politics of hoping a judge might do the bidding of the anti-immigrant movement,” the organization said in a statement.
To be eligible for the program, immigrants must have lived continuously in the U.S. for at least 10 years, not pose a security threat or disqualify criminal history, and have been married to a citizen by June 17 — the day before the program was announced.
They must pay a $580 fee to apply and fill out a lengthy application, which includes an explanation of why they deserve humanitarian parole and a list of supporting documents proving their length of stay in the country.
They apply to the Department of Homeland Security and, if approved, have three years to seek permanent residency. During that period, they can get work authorization. The administration estimates that about 500,000 people, plus about 50,000 of their children, could be eligible.
Before this program, getting a green card for people who were in the U.S. illegally after marrying an American citizen was complicated. They could be required to return to their home country—often for years—and always face the risk of not being allowed back in.
