Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the Biden administration over its latest immigration proposal that would provide legal status to some undocumented spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens.
The Biden initiative was announced in June and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services began accepting applications for the program Monday. It offers some noncitizens a “parole in place” option that would allow applicants a reprieve from deportation and the opportunity to adjust their status to permanent residency without first leaving the country.
The lawsuit alleges the policy is an end-around to current law that violates federal policy.
“Longstanding federal law prohibits aliens who entered the United States unlawfully from obtaining most immigration benefits. This includes obtaining lawful permanent resident status—without first leaving the United States and waiting outside the United States for the requisite time,” the filing states.
The lawsuit includes 15 other GOP-led states and was filed in federal court in Tyler, Texas.
The policy requires applicants to have lived in the country for at least 10 years and be in a valid marriage to a U.S. citizen during that time.
Paxton said in his announcement that the Biden plan “unilaterally grants the opportunity for citizenship to unvetted aliens whose first act on American soil was to break our laws.”
That’s despite a requirement that applicants have no disqualifying criminal history or be deemed a threat to national security, along with agreeing to undergo fingerprinting and background checks.
The Biden administration said earlier this summer the program could affect about 500,000 spouses of U.S. citizens and about 50,000 stepchildren.
“On average, these noncitizens have resided in the United States for 23 years,” a fact sheet from USCIS adds.
Paxton and the other states said in the court filing that those numbers are underestimated and that 1.3 million undocumented immigrants are married to U.S. citizens, citing data from the Migration Policy Institute. It’s unclear from the filing, however, that they all meet the criteria required by the parole-in-place program.
The lawsuit names U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and the current leadership of USCIS, Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as defendants.