In what has been described as a “dramatic escalation in the open borders” dispute between governors and the Biden administration, Fox News reports that a coalition of 20 states and notable conservative legal groups have joined together to sue the Biden administration.
At the heart of the matter is the Biden administration’s recently-expanded humanitarian parole program, which opponents argue allows up to 30,000 migrants from Haiti, Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela into the U.S. each month.
The lawsuit is spearheaded by Texas state officials and the America First Legal group representing the Southern District of Texas. State leaders representing 19 additional states joined the lawsuit in an attempt to block the Biden administration’s parole program.
President Biden introduced a limited version of the recently introduced parole program for Venezuelans in October. The fall provision allowed a limited number of migrants to fly directly into the U.S. as long as they had not entered illegally, already had a sponsor in the U.S. and passed certain checks.
President Biden announced an expansion of the program in early January — noting that the expanded program would include Haitians, Nicaraguans and Cubans.
President Joe Biden said, “We anticipate this action is going to substantially reduce the number of people attempting to cross our southwest border without going through a legal process.”
In the lawsuit, plaintiffs argue the parole program is illegal, noting the “exceptionally limited” parole power available to the federal government.
An excerpt of the lawsuit reads:
“The parole program … fails each of the law’s three limiting factors. It is not case-by-case, is not for urgent humanitarian reasons, and advances no significant public benefit. Instead, it amounts to the creation of a new visa program that allows hundreds of thousands of aliens to enter the United States who otherwise have no basis for doing so.”
The complaint adds: “This flouts, rather than follows, the clear limits imposed by Congress.”
The Biden administration stated the parole program is one of several initiatives designed to “expand lawful migration pathways as a way to combat the ongoing migrant surge at the border,” according to Fox News.
Opponents of the program cite the historic flood of immigrants into the country in 2022 and argue the initiative is unlawful because “it did not engage in the notice-and-comment rulemaking required by the Administrative Procedure Act,” according to the report in Fox.
The complaint notes that southern states “face substantial irreparable harms from the Department’s abuse of its parole authority, which allows potentially hundreds of thousands of additional aliens to enter each of their already overwhelmed territories.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement to Fox News Digital:
“Every state in America, especially border states like Texas, is being crushed by the impacts of illegal immigration. The Biden open borders agenda has created a humanitarian crisis that is increasing crime and violence in our streets, overwhelming local communities, and worsening the opioid crisis.”
Paxton continued: This unlawful amnesty program, which will invite hundreds of thousands of aliens into the U.S. every year, will only make this immigration crisis drastically worse.”
Stephen Miller, leader of America First Legal, noted that Biden’s parole program represents “a dramatic escalation in the open borders crusade.”
Miller added: “Not only is Biden freely admitting illegal aliens who arrive at our borders, but he is now going to foreign countries to pre-approve innumerable illegal aliens to flood into our country without any legal basis whatsoever. It is illegal, unconstitutional, and contemptible.”
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