US judge pauses Joe Biden’s plan offering legal status to spouses of American citizens

Houston, Aug 27 (PTI) A Texas court has put a temporary pause on President Biden’s ambitious plan to fast-track permanent residency for illegal migrants married to American citizens, a move that could hamper the hopes of approximately half a million such spouses, including several thousands Indian-Americans.

In June, President Joe Biden issued a massive immigration relief to non-citizens offering a path to citizenship to the non-citizen spouses and children of American nationals.

Biden had directed the Department of Homeland Security to take action to ensure that US citizens with non-citizen spouses and children can keep their families together.

This new process will help certain non-citizen spouses and children apply for lawful permanent residence – a status that they are already eligible for – without leaving the country, the White House said.

On Monday, US District Judge J Campbell Barker issued the two-week-long administrative stay on the same day the Department of Homeland Security began accepting applications for the so-called Parole in Place programme, which would grant work authorisation, permanent residency and eventually citizenship to spouses and stepchildren of US citizens who have been in the country for at least 10 years.

“The claims are substantial and warrant closer consideration than the court has been able to afford to date,” Barker wrote in his nine-page order, which followed a lawsuit filed by 16 Republican-led states arguing that the programme would “incentivise illegal immigration and will irreparably harm” the states, the New York Post reported.

The lawsuit, filed on Friday, further contended that 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.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who noted in the complaint that the Lone Star State has had to pay tens of millions of dollars annually to cover the costs of illegal migrants living in Texas, called the ruling “just the first step” in what may be a lengthy court battle.

“Biden’s unconstitutional scheme would have rewarded over 1 million illegal aliens with the opportunity for citizenship after breaking our country’s laws — and incentivized countless more,” Paxton wrote on X.

“This is just the first step,” he added. “We are going to keep fighting for Texas, our country, and the rule of law.”

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey celebrated the pause, calling it a “HUGE win for the rule of law.”

President Biden announced the Parole in Place programme in June, as part of a sweeping set of executive actions on immigration.

It was expected that about 5,00,000 spouses of US citizens, and 50,000 non-citizen children, would benefit from the now paused programme.

Without Parole in Place, non-citizen spouses would typically have needed to spend a years-long wait outside of the US before qualifying for the same benefits.

“An order like this is an extreme measure that — by law — should only be taken in the most urgent of situations,” said Karen Tumlin, founder and Director of Justice Action Center, which supports the Biden administration plan, said in a statement.

More than 1.1 million undocumented spouses married to US citizens, thousands of whom are Indian-Americans, have lived in the US on average for 16 years, and many have been married to their US-citizen spouses for at least a decade.

Justice Action Center noted that applications for Parole in Place can still be accepted while the administrative stay is in place, the Post reported.

To be eligible for the programme, applicants must have lived continuously in the US for at least a decade, not be deemed a security threat or have a disqualifying criminal history and married as of June 17 – one day before Biden unveiled the programme.

A USD 580 application fee, documents proving spouses have been living in the US and an explanation for why humanitarian parole is necessary is also required.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and numerous other Republican lawmakers described Biden’s plan at the time as “amnesty to hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens.”