A federal judge struck down a Biden administration policy that provides a path to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens.
U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker initially put the program, which allowed undocumented spouses to obtain green cards without needing to leave the country, on hold in August amid a legal battle. Barker, who was appointed under the Trump administration, ruled Thursday that the administration had not been authorized by Congress to create such a policy.
Attorneys general in several states, spearheaded by Texas, challenged the initiative — dubbed “Keeping Families Together.” The officials, and many Republicans, argued that President Biden’s program sidestepped Congress to aid immigrant families for political gain and would put additional financial strain on the states.
“As the court has rejected the Rule’s reading of parole ‘into the United States,’ it also concludes that the Rule focuses on the wrong thing in identifying ‘significant public benefits’ — the benefits of aliens’ new legal status, rather than their presence in this country,” Barker wrote in the 74-page ruling. “The Rule exceeds statutory authority and is not in accordance with law for this reason as well.”
The program applied to those who have been in the country for over 10 years, were not a security threat and were protected from deportation under the “parole in place” program. They had to be married to U.S. citizens and complete an application which, if granted, would give them three years to seek a permanent residency.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimated at the time the policy was announced that roughly 500,000 spouses could benefit, plus 50,000 stepchildren.
“Without this process, hundreds of thousands of noncitizen spouses of U.S. citizens are likely to instead remain in the United States without lawful status, causing these families to live in fear and with uncertainty about their futures,” DHS officials wrote in the June document detailing the policy.
Forcing spouses to leave the country “is disruptive to the family’s economic and emotional wellbeing,” they added.
President-elect Trump, who was declared the winner of the 2024 election earlier this week, has also criticized the policy. During his time on the campaign trail, he repeatedly attacked Biden over immigration and border security, tying him to instances of crime allegedly committed by migrants and citing record-high numbers of detentions along the southern border.
He has also pledged that one “Day 1” of his return to office, he would carry out “the largest deportation program in American history.”
The Biden administration can still appeal the ruling.
