A federal court in Texas has temporarily frozen an executive order that has the potential to give amnesty and a pathway to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants in the United States.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Monday froze a program created by the White House earlier this year that provides deportation protections and other amnesty benefits to illegal migrants who are married to U.S. citizens, according to court documents. The court decision comes less than a week after a coalition of GOP-led states suedthe Biden-Harris administration over the order, seeking a temporary restraining order.
“This is a huge victory in our courtroom battle to block the Biden-Harris executive fiat giving over 1 million illegal aliens a path to U.S. citizenship,” America First Legal president Stephen Miller said, according to a press release.
“That executive decree is now frozen,” Miller continued. “America First Legal is deeply honored to partner with Attorney General Paxton, Attorney General Labrador, along with 14 other states to fight this unconstitutional mass amnesty.”
President Joe Biden unveiled the executive order in June during a White House celebration of the 12-year anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The proclamation gives deportation protection, work permits and a pathway to legal status to illegal immigrants who are married to American citizens, with the White House estimating that up to half a million illegal migrants would benefit from the program.
To be accepted into the amnesty program, illegal migrants must be legally married to a U.S. citizen, provide proof that they’ve lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years and be ultimately approved by the Department of Homeland Security, which examines each applicant on a case-by-case basis, according to the White House.
The Biden-Harris administration is using an authority known as “parole-in-place” to usher in the amnesty order. The maneuver removes obstacles in U.S. law that prevents noncitizen spouses who entered the country unlawfully from obtaining green cards without leaving the country first, offering them a pathway to permanent legal status.
A coalition of sixteen 16 states — led by Miller’s America First Legal, and Texas and Idaho — filed a lawsuit on Friday, calling the program unconstitutional and seeking a temporary restraining order.
“Under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the federal government is actively working to turn the United States into a nation without borders and a country without laws,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stated on Friday. “I will not let this happen.”
“Biden’s new parole workaround unilaterally grants the opportunity for citizenship to unvetted aliens whose first act on American soil was to break our laws,” Paxton went on. “This violates the Constitution and actively worsens the illegal immigration disaster that is hurting Texas and our country.”
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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