America First Legal, joined by Texas, Idaho, and a coalition of 14 state attorneys general, has filed an urgent lawsuit against the Biden-Harris Administration over a plan to offer a pathway to citizenship for approximately one million undocumented immigrants. The suit comes after President Biden unveiled a mass amnesty program in June, allowing undocumented individuals to gain legal status if they are married to U.S. citizens.
The proposal, known as “Parole in Place,” aims to provide a pathway to permanent legal status and U.S. citizenship for beneficiaries. It would permit individuals who entered the country illegally to obtain green cards without leaving the U.S. On Friday, a coalition of states, legal organizations, and state attorneys general filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District to challenge and halt the Biden-Harris Administration’s order.
“Federal law prohibits illegal aliens from adjusting their status to that of a Lawful Permanent Resident in the United States if they have been unlawfully present in the United States–a commonsense measure that acts as a disincentive to anyone who might come to the United States illegally,” America First Legal noted in a press release.
The legal group went on to note that the immigration parole authority can only be used on “a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit” for aliens coming temporarily to the United States. DHS “cannot use that power to parole aliens en masse,” which is what the Biden-Harris Administration is attempting to do. “The implementation of this blatantly illegal program will only further fuel the greatest immigration crisis in history and cause irreparable harm to states like Texas and Idaho,” the release added.
In a statement accompanying the lawsuit, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stated that the Biden-Harris Administration is “actively working to turn the United States into a nation without borders and a country without laws.” He added: “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. This violates the Constitution and actively worsens the illegal immigration disaster that is hurting Texas and our country.”
Last week, a coalition of 15 states, led by Kansas, has filed a lawsuit to block the Biden-Harris administration from extending taxpayer-funded healthcare through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to illegal immigrants. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, along with attorneys general from 14 other states, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota, Western Division. The defendants in the lawsuit are the U.S. government and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
The lawsuit challenges a recent CMS rule that broadens the definition of “lawfully present” individuals in the U.S. to include recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The change would make DACA recipients eligible for ACA benefits, which the coalition argues is both illegal and financially burdensome. Illegal immigration has spiked under the Biden-Harris regime to record numbers, and the issue has become a top concern among a growing majority of Americans this election cycle. Harris, as alleged ‘border czar,’ has done little to stem the flow of illegal migrants and drugs after Biden assigned her the task very early in their term.
The complaint argues that DACA recipients, who are by definition unlawfully present in the U.S., should not qualify for federal public benefits under the ACA. The states claim that the CMS rule violates the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which limits federal benefits to certain qualified aliens. According to the lawsuit, DACA recipients do not meet these qualifications. “Aliens granted deferred action under DACA are not included in the definition of such qualified aliens,” the complaint reads. It further argued that “DACA recipients are, by definition, unlawfully present in the United States.”
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