President Joe Biden on Tuesday vowed to keep fighting after his executive order providing amnesty benefits to a large swath of the country’s illegal migrant population was temporarily frozen by a federal court.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Monday night paused a program created by the Biden-Harris administration that provides deportation protection, a pathway to citizenship and other benefits to illegal immigrants in the U.S. who are married to American citizens. The court decision led Biden, who announced the creation of the program earlier this year, to release a statement vowing to keep fighting to “fix our broken immigration system.”
“Last night, a single district court in Texas ruled that our work to keep families together has to stop,” Biden said in the White House statement. “That ruling is wrong. These families should not be needlessly separated.”
“They should be able to stay together, and my Administration will not stop fighting for them,” Biden continued. “I will continue to fight to secure our border and fix our broken immigration system.”
The court decision came after America First Legal — a conservative organization formed by former Trump administration senior advisor Stephen Miller — argued that the executive order is unconstitutional and led a coalition of 16 Republican states in a lawsuit against it.
U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker issued the administrative stay for 14 days, which temporarily blocks the program from continuing, according to court documents.
Biden unveiled the executive order in June during a White House event commemorating the 12-year anniversary of the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals, the last major amnesty program initiated by the federal government. The Keeping Families Together program allows illegal migrant spouses of U.S. citizens to apply for lawful permanent residence without having to leave the country first, according to a fact sheet of the plan released by the White House.
Those approved for the program would not only be given lawful permanent residence and work permits but also a pathway to citizenship, according to the plan.
The maneuver makes use of a federal authority known as “parole in place” and, according to the White House’s fact sheet, has the potential to benefit roughly half a million illegal migrants. However, America First Legal places that estimate at more than one million illegal immigrants.
“All I did was make it possible for these long-time residents to file the paperwork here — together with their families,” Biden argued in the statement on Tuesday. “But without the Keeping Families Together process, spouses of U.S. citizens won’t be able to stay in the U.S. while they obtain the long-term legal status for which they’re already eligible.”
“They’ll be forced to either leave their families in America, or live in the shadows in constant fear of deportation,” the president continued.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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