A Texas District Court has temporarily stopped the Biden administration’s “Keeping Families Together” parole-in-place program. The program, which started August 19, 2024, allows noncitizen spouses and noncitizen stepchildren of U.S. citizens, if otherwise eligible, to apply for lawful permanent residence without leaving the United States. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will continue to collect applications although parole grants under the program are paused.
On August 23, 2024, the state of Texas, along with 15 other states, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, calling the program “unlawful” and arguing that it “incentivizes illegal immigration and will irreparably harm the Plaintiff States.” The District Court agreed, issuing an administrative stay. The court said it “has undertaken a first-blush review of the merits of plaintiffs’ standing and cause of action in light of the evidence submitted with their motion for a TRO and a stay. The claims are substantial and warrant closer consideration than the court has been able to afford to date.” In particular, the court said, its conclusion was based on the need to analyze (1) whether parole “into” the United States includes entry by those who are already in the United States, “as opposed to at or beyond the border,” and (2) the relevant rule’s possible misapprehension of the legal standard in focusing on significant public benefit from “this process” rather than whether a specific person’s lawful presence in the country would have public, as opposed to private, benefit that is significant. The court said its review was a “screening” and did not express any ultimate conclusions about the success or likely success of the government’s claims. The court noted that its stay applied to granting parole under the program but not to accepting applications.
As noted above, USCIS said it would continue to accept applications but not grant parole under the program while the stay is in place. USCIS also noted that the district court’s stay “does not affect any applications that were approved before the administrative stay order was issued at 6:46 p.m. Eastern Time on Aug. 26, 2024.” The court set forth a detailed “expedited schedule” for further court filings up to October 10, 2024, with extensions possible through mid-October, followed by “an expedited hearing on preliminary relief and summary judgment, and if necessary a consolidated bench trial.”