A federal judge in Texas has declared illegal the Joe Biden administration’s “Keeping Families Together” immigration program, which seeks to facilitate legal status for foreign spouses of Americans.
Judge J. Campbell Barker, appointed in Donald Trump’s first term, ruled that the administration “lacks legal authority” to implement this program, which is a serious blow to the immigration policy of Biden, who will leave the presidency in January. of 2025.
The initiative, formally known as “parole in place,” was launched in June 2024 and aimed to benefit approximately 500,000 immigrants who, without legal status, are married to US citizens.
The program allows these immigrants to begin the process of applying for permanent residence without leaving the country, an option that, according to its defenders, helps avoid the separation of families and the long processes that procedures from abroad usually involve.
The regulations establish that only those who have been in the US for at least 10 years and who married a US citizen before June 17, 2024 are eligible, in addition to some 50,000 stepchildren of US citizens.
In August, Barker had already temporarily suspended the program following a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and a group of Republican prosecutors who argued that the program encouraged illegal immigration and violated US immigration laws.
After that suspension, an appeal had allowed the program to be reactivated, but this Thursday’s ruling once again stops it definitively, although the Biden government can still appeal.
Paxton, one of Trump’s allies, was pleased with the judge’s ruling and said the Biden administration was “rewarding those who broke the laws.”
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The ruling comes at a time of growing tension as President-elect Donald Trump insists on the need to stop what he describes as an “invasion” of irregular migrants.
Trump, who defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election, has promised to carry out “mass deportations” once he takes office in January. The Trump campaign has called Biden’s program a “mass amnesty” that it believes would encourage more illegal immigration.
The White House has not yet issued a statement in response to the ruling, although the Biden administration is expected to appeal the decision.
Meanwhile, migrant rights advocates have expressed their concern and disappointment. Harold A. Solís, a representative of the organization Make The Road New York, called the decision “a deeply disappointing and unfair setback for families who live every day under the weight of uncertainty.”
“We must and will continue to support family unity despite this dangerous decision,” he added.
A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that a large majority of Americans see immigration as the main challenge for the Trump administration.
Many believe that the president-elect will fulfill his promise to deport people who live in the country without documents, which would imply a radical change in the immigration policy of recent years.
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