Court strikes down Biden-Harris program to regularize illegal immigrants via marriage
Federal Judge Campbell Barker ruled in favor of the 16 states that challenged the measure, concluding that DHS did not have the necessary authority to implement the change. With Trump's arrival to the White House, an appeal seems unlikely.
U.S. border with Mexico
A federal judge in Texas ruled against the Biden-Harris administration's Keep Families Together program. The Democratic initiative sought to facilitate citizenship for illegal immigrants married to U.S. citizens.
Created in June, the proposal allowed undocumented immigrants married at least a decade ago to U.S. citizens to begin the naturalization process from U.S. soil, when, currently, it can only be done from outside the national territory. In addition, it granted them a three-year work permit.
Two months later, the law firm America First Legal, representing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and 15 other states, took the plan to court, which they defined as "an illegal program that would have provided amnesty to hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens and paved the path for the largest administrative amnesty in American history." In addition to attracting immigrants, they argued, it would create costs to the states in services such as health care and education.
After blocking the measure's implementation in August, Judge Campbell Barker ruled Thursday against Keeping Families Together on the grounds that the Department of Homeland Security lacked authority to institute the measure. The program, he concluded, would impinge on the jurisdiction of the states.
Texas was joined by Idaho, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming, who had said the program would encourage illegal immigration and be harmful to them.
'No one is above the law!'
"ANOTHER COURT VICTORY - stopping Biden/Harris administration’s attempt to skirt immigration laws," celebrated Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador, one of 16 attorneys general who filed the lawsuit. The other plaintiffs were from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming.
"This win stops Biden & Harris from inviting 500,000+ illegal aliens to unlawfully live & work in the US," Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird wrote. "No one is above the law!"
From the opposite side of the aisle, the reaction has been, predictably, the opposite: "It’s extremely disappointing because these are people who have all been here for many years and will move forward in the immigration system," Dan Berger, an immigration lawyer who defended the measure, told The New York Times.
Although the administration can still appeal the decision, there is little hope that it will do so following Donald Trump's election victory. It would be up to his administration to continue the process before a higher court.
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