Sixteen Republican-led states are suing to end a federal program that could potentially give nearly half a million immigrants who do not have legal status but 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, saying in court filings that 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 on Monday, many spouses without legal status can apply for something called "parole in place" that offers permission to stay in the U.S., apply for a green card and eventually get on a path to citizenship.
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.
'Immigration disaster'
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."
The suit filed against the Department of Homeland Security, 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 states also filed a motion asking for the program to be put on hold while the lawsuit proceeds.
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 conservative nonprofit America First Legal, which is headed by Stephen Miller, a former adviser to former President Donald Trump, is serving as co-counsel in the lawsuit.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Mayra Alejandra said the agency will defend the Keeping Families Together program in court and continues to process the submitted applications as well as accept new applications.
"Keeping Families Together is grounded in well-established legal authority, and its purpose — enabling the families of U.S. citizens to live without fear of separation — is consistent with fundamental American values," Alejandra said.
White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández said Republicans are "playing politics" and characterized the lawsuit as another form of family separation.
The bipartisan immigration and criminal justice organization FWD.us said the program is in compliance with the law and noted the timing of the lawsuit — 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.
The lawsuit contends that states will bear the burden of additional immigrants staying in the country.
Texas, the suit says, spends tens of millions of dollars each year on a program that provides health insurance for children, including those in the country illegally. It says that the state also spends millions each year "for increased law enforcement as its citizens suffer increased crime, unemployment, environmental harm and social disorder due to illegal immigration."
Concern about wages
Because the program beneficiaries will be entitled to work authorization, those additional workers "will drive down the wages of Texas residents, directly harming the State and its citizens," the lawsuit says.
Evelyn Wiese, an immigration attorney at American Immigrant Justice, described the lawsuit as an attack on mixed-status families who have spent years contributing to their communities in the United States.
"Trying to rip apart these families and prevent them from accessing a lawful pathway to status in the U.S. is cruel and reflective of anti-immigrant extremism," she said.
