On Friday, sixteen state attorneys general from the Republican party lodged a lawsuit in district court against the Biden administration, aiming to block the enforcement of a policy that extends amnesty to undocumented immigrants living in the United States.
The legal action asserts that the Democrats have once again tried to establish their own immigration framework rather than adhering to the Constitution.
The policy, which includes provisions for granting citizenship to American spouses, commenced implementation earlier this week.
via the NYT:
Texas and 15 other Republican-led states sued the Biden administration on Friday seeking to halt a new program that could give legal status to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens.
Filed just days after the program opened for applications, the lawsuit is the latest in a string of legal actions Texas has led challenging federal immigration policies and powers.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, seeks a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to immediately suspend the program.
The filing read:
“The Biden-Harris Administration — dissatisfied with the system Congress created, and for blatant political purposes — has yet again attempted to create its own immigration system,” the 67-page court filing said.
“This agency action is nothing less than mass amnesty cloaked in purported executive discretion — a sweeping, last-minute ploy by an administration bent on rewriting immigration laws without Congress,” it said.
It also said that the program ran afoul of the law because it misused so-called parole, an authority exercised by the Homeland Security Department to allow people outside the United States to enter the country for urgent humanitarian reasons, on a case-by-case basis.
The Biden program was, instead, attempting to “to parole aliens en masse,” who were already in the country, the motion said.
“Parole authority is not unbounded,” it added.
The DHS also responded on Friday to the suit:
A spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, which is running the program, said that the agency would defend the program in court and continue to process new applications.
White House spokesman Angelo Fernández Hernández said in a statement:
“Republican elected officials continue to demonstrate that they are more focused on playing politics than helping American families or fixing our broken immigration system.
The lawsuit aims to separate American citizens from their spouses and stepchildren who are already eligible for lawful permanent residency and could remain together through this process.”
Biden’s amnesty plan, revealed on June 18, is expected to provide relief for approximately one million undocumented immigrants, as noted by my colleague Nick Arama.
However, questions were raised regarding the legal basis for such action.
The Supreme Court is likely to address this issue and other lawsuits related to the administration’s alleged failure to ensure the safety of American citizens as they progress through the legal system.
