Judge pauses immigration program for spouses of U.S. citizens

A U.S. District Court judge on Monday placed a temporary hold on a Biden administration policy allowing the non-citizen family members of citizens to stay in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security earlier this month implemented a “Keeping Families Together” rule aimed at allowing thousands of long-time illegal immigrants to stay inside the country. Texas and 15 other Republican-led states sued the administration over the rule. Judge J. Campbell Barker serves the Eastern District of Texas.

What did this rule do? The DHS rule allowed illegal immigrant spouses and their children to stay in the United States if they met certain criteria, filled out the proper forms, and paid a $580 application fee. The rule would promote the unity and stability of families and benefit American communities, DHS said. The agency estimated that roughly 550,000 spouses and children would be eligible to stay in the United States under the program.

What did these states find problematic about the rule? The states argued the rule rewarded illegal immigrants for breaking the law. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that his state was already paying tens of millions of dollars to support hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant spouses within its borders. Federal law mandated that Texas pay for healthcare, education, and other benefits for those illegal immigrants, he said. Texas also spends tens of millions of dollars more each year strengthening its law enforcement agencies to handle the influx of new immigrants, Paxton said.

So Judge Barker ruled in favor of Texas and the other states? Barker clarified that his ruling was not an ultimate conclusion on the arguments Texas and the other states presented. But his initial impression was that the DHS rule was unclear about which immigrants would benefit from the program, the judge wrote. Barker also expressed uncertainty about whether the rule would produce a public benefit, as opposed to a private benefit for many individuals in the country.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift about Germany’s promises to expel many illegal immigrants following a deadly stabbing rampage in Solingen.