TYLER, Texas (CN) — A Texas federal judge struck down the Biden administration’s “Keeping Families Together” program late Thursday evening, concluding the plan to keep over 550,000 undocumented spouses and stepchildren in the country is illegal.
U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker in the Eastern District of Texas ruled the Department of Homeland Security lacks the statutory authority to create the program because the controlling Immigration and Nationality Act “allows only for paroling aliens ‘into the United States,’” not granting parole for those already here.
“As shown by statutory text, structure, history and purpose, that limiting phrase refers to a legal entry into this country,” Barker wrote in the 74-page opinion. “Other laws may, of course, specially deem such an entry to have occurred. But INA does not itself do so or authorize that fiction.”
Sixteen Republican-led states sued the Department of Homeland Security in August challenging the program that allowed applicants to parole in place on a case-by-case basis rather than risk splitting up a family unit. Applicants must otherwise return to their country of origin to apply for legal residency and risk a U.S. entry ban of up to 10 years.
Barker, a Donald Trump appointee, temporarily stayed the program within days of the August announcement, with a restraining order set to expire within hours of his Thursday ruling. DHS has continued accepting applications since the stay and estimates 500,000 spouses and 50,000 stepchildren could be eligible.
Undocumented immigrants were eligible for Keeping Families Together if they got married to a citizen before June 17, have lived in the United States continuously since June 2014 and have no serious criminal record.
Reaction to Barker’s ruling was swift. Social welfare group FWD.us said it is “deeply disappointed” by the decision.
“The Keeping Families Together Parole program represents a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of American families in desperate need of protection from being separated by our failed immigration system,” the group tweeted Tuesday evening.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey celebrated the ruling as a “huge win” for the rule of law.
“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris created a crisis at the southern border, leaving the American people to pay the consequences,” Bailey said in a written statement. “In the wake of the federal government’s refusal to act, states like Missouri had no choice but to step in and take action to secure our southern border.”
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Thursday evening.
Barker’s ruling came two days after he thoroughly questioned attorneys with the Texas attorney general and Department of Justice during a consolidated hearing and bench trial.
The plaintiffs told Barker the program will force states to spend more money on healthcare, education and prisons. They contend the sheer number of parolees “will cause quantifiable financial harm” and that even “a dollar or two” of injury clears the hurdle imposed by the take care clause of Article III of the U.S. Constitution.
The judge considered how attorneys for both sides agreed that very few program applicants would leave the country even if Keeping Families Together did not exist, citing social and familial relationships built during their time here.
“This rule is not really about keeping families together, it is about relieving the stress,” Barker said at the consolidated hearing and bench trial.
Barker previously ruled against the Biden administration’s Covid-19 eviction moratorium in 2021 and ruled against the National Labor Relations Board’s joint-employer rule in March.