WASHINGTON – US President Biden’s fresh plan for aspiring immigrants has been challenged before a court of law as the US braces for fresh elections in the ongoing year.
Texas, along with a coalition of sixteen Republican-led states, filed a lawsuit challenging a newly introduced program that offers a path to citizenship for immigrants who entered the United States illegally but are now married to U.S. citizens.
The lawsuit, announced on Friday, argues that the program ‘Keeping Families Together’ oversteps the executive branch’s authority by providing relief to individuals without legal status, effectively bypassing existing U.S. immigration laws.
The ‘Keeping Families Together’ initiative, which began accepting applications this week, aims to provide citizenship opportunities to an estimated 500,000 immigrant spouses who have lived in the U.S. illegally for at least a decade. Without this program, many of these individuals would be required to leave the country for several years before being eligible to return legally.
Under the program, many spouses without legal status can apply for ‘parole in place’ after paying a $580 fee, allowing them to stay in the US, apply for a green card, and consequently get citizenship.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stated on Friday that the program violates the constitution and exacerbates the illegal immigration crisis that is damaging Texas and the nation.
The lawsuit, brought against the Department of Homeland Security, its Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and other Biden administration officials, alleges that the agency is attempting to grant parole to spouses on a mass scale, a move that the states argue constitutes an overreach of authority.
