A judge has ruled that the Biden-Harris administration's plan to give legal status to the illegal immigrant spouses of American citizens is not valid because the Department of Homeland Security does not have the authority to carry out this kind of mass amnesty. The program, called Keeping Families Together, would have allowed those individuals to "parole in place," and to remain in the US, despite their lack of legal status.

The suit was brought against the DHS by the State of Texas and many other states along with America First Legal. Texas has born a disproportionate amount of the burden of illegal immigration due to the sheer number of person who illegally cross into the US across the Rio Grande River and into the state. 

"In this case," the decision reads, "16 States challenge a rule issued by the Department of Homeland Security that creates a process allowing foreign nationals to be paroled 'in place'... if [they] are present in the country illegally and are qualifying spouses or stepchildren of US citizens. Implementation of Keeping Families Together."

After weighing the merits of the case and the authorities of those involved, Judge J. Campbell Barker states that "The court declares that defendants lack statutory authority... to grant parole 'in place' to aliens, as that term is used in the final agency action..., or to deem parole 'in place' as use there be parole 'into the United States'... That agency action is hereby set aside and vacated."

The Keeping Families Together program as implemented by DHS in August was a component of the Biden-Harris administration's effort to create pathways to citizenship for those illegal immigrants who are currently living in the US. 

In June, DHS "announced a key step toward fulfilling President Biden’s commitment to promoting family unity in the immigration system." In August, "DHS implemented Keeping Families Together, a process for certain noncitizen spouses and noncitizen stepchildren of U.S. citizens to request parole in place under existing statutory authority."

"Parole is an exercise of DHS’s discretionary authority under section 212(d)(5)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to allow certain noncitizen 'applicants for admission' to be present in the United States on a temporary, case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit," DHS explained in their announcement. "The INA defines an 'applicant for admission,' in relevant part, as a noncitizen 'present in the United States who has not been admitted.' Noncitizens who are present in the United States without admission or parole may be considered for parole in place under this process because they remain 'applicants for admission.' Parole in place is available only for noncitizens who are present in the United States." 

In other words, the idea was that if those persons who had entered the US illegally but had either spousal or step relationships to Americans, would be considered on parole simply because they were still in the US, though they had not applied for it. Those newly minted "parolees" would be permitted to "apply for adjustment of status to that of a lawful permanent resident without being required to leave the United States and be processed by a U.S. consulate overseas." It would fast track legal status for those who has broken the law and faced no penalty for doing so.

DHS stated that their estimates showed 1,000,000 of these individuals in the US who "could be eligible to access Keeping Families Together; on average, these noncitizens have resided in the United States for 23 years. 

2024-1107_120-FOF-and-COL by The Post Millennial on Scribd