A group of undocumented immigrants and their families is seeking to intervene in a federal lawsuit to defend the Biden administration's "parole in place" program that provides legal relief to undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens.
The program suffered at least a temporary setback on Monday as it was paused by U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker, who alleged in a statement that claims filed by 16 Republican-led states against the program "are substantial and warrant closer consideration than the court has been able to afford to date."
The judge laid out a timetable that could produce a decision shortly before the presidential election or before a newly elected president takes office in January, according to The Associated Press.
The parole in place program seeks to address the challenges faced by undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens, who typically have to leave the country to legalize their status, risking prolonged or permanent separation from their families. The program allows them to apply for a green card and eventually citizenship without leaving the country.
The six undocumented immigrants and their U.S. citizen spouses, supported by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, filed a motion in Tyler, a small city in eastern Texas. The defendants will be represented by Justice Action Center, alongside Make the Road New York.
"If Barker grants the motion to intervene, the immigrants and their legal counsel will become directly involved as defendants in the lawsuit", explained a report by NBC News. "Whereas the federal government will defend the program on behalf of its own agencies, the immigrants and their counsel will defend it on the basis of their own personal interests."
Among those seeking to intervene is Foday Turay, who came to the U.S. as a child from Sierra Leone and is now a lawyer in Philadelphia. Turay, who is married to a U.S. citizen and has a young child, expressed concern over the potential impact of the lawsuit on his family, emphasizing the importance of the program for immigrants like him who have lived in the U.S. for years:
"I've been waiting for over a decade for a program like this, Living in a country where you've been paying taxes for years, and yet you have to face the constant fear of being torn from your family and your community — when is that fear going to stop?"
Texas Attorney General Paxton, along with attorneys general from 15 other states, argues that the program violates federal law and exacerbates illegal immigration. They are supported in their lawsuit by America First Legal, an organization founded by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who has criticized the program as "executive amnesty."
The Republican-led states seek an immediate halt the program arguing that it imposes financial burdens on states by increasing costs in education, healthcare, and other services, and could incentivize future unauthorized immigration. The Justice Action Center, intends to challenge these claims, citing their success in defending a similar Biden administration program for immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
Attorney General Paxton is also having to deal with pushback elsewhere as the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) decided on Monday to request a federal investigation into raids carried out by him in the state of Texas during the last weeks, the highest profile of which was performed at the home of Cecilia Castellano, a Democrat running for a state House seat, alleging vote harvesting.
The raids, conducted just 11 weeks before the election were labelled by Paxton "ongoing election integrity investigation." LULAC, however, claims they were conducted "to suppress the Latino vote through intimidation."
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