Federal judge strikes down Harris-Biden admin effort to grant ‘amnesty’ to illegal migrants married to US citizens

A Texas federal judge on Thursday struck down the Harris-Biden administration’s plan to fast track permanent residency for illegal migrants married to American citizens. 

US District Judge J. Campbell Barker’s ruling comes two months after he issued an order temporarily pausing the administration’s so-called “Parole in Place” program, which sought to grant work authorization, permanent residency and eventually citizenship to spouses and stepchildren of US citizens who have been in the country for at least 10 years.  

“The Rule exceeds statutory authority and is not in accordance with law,” Barker wrote in his 74-page ruling, adding that the policy “focuses on the wrong thing in identifying ‘significant public benefits’ — the benefits of aliens’ new legal status, rather than their presence in this country.” 

The lawsuit over the Harris-Biden administration’s Parole in Place policy was filed by 16 GOP-led states. AFP via Getty Images

DACA recipient Javier Quiroz Castro embraces U.S. President Joe Biden, before the announcement of an executive action to provide immigration relief for spouses of U.S. citizens. REUTERS

The judge, an appointee of President-elect Donald Trump, found that “history and purpose confirm that defendants’ view stretches legal interpretation past its breaking point.” 

The ruling follows a lawsuit filed by 16 Republican-led states in August arguing that the program “incentivizes illegal immigration and will irreparably harm” the states. 

The lawsuit 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.” 

President Biden announced the Parole in Place program in June, as part of a sweeping set of executive actions on immigration that came in the wake of a historic surge of migrants illegally entering the country throughout his first term. 

It was expected that about 500,000 spouses of US citizens, and 50,000 non-citizen children, would benefit from the program, which has now been deemed illegal.

Without Parole in Place, non-citizen spouses will likely need to spend a years-long wait outside of the US before qualifying for the same benefits. 

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

America First Legal Executive Director Gene Hamilton, who had been representing the coalition of states in their lawsuit, praised the attorneys general that “stood up” to the Harris-Biden administration. 

“Since day one, the Biden-Harris Administration has dedicated itself to the decimation of our immigration system and the erasure of our borders,” Hamilton said in a statement. “Time and again, the States stood up. And today, the great State of Texas and the courageous Ken Paxton, alongside a coalition of other brave Attorneys General, succeeded in stopping an illegal program that would have provided amnesty to hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens and paved the path for the largest administrative amnesty in American history.”