DENVER, Colorado — After a judge in Texas filed a lawsuit in late August, President Biden's recently unveiled Keeping Families Together program is halted. The program, if enacted, could give around 500,000 immigrants without status a path to citizenship, if they are married to a U.S. citizen.
Led by the state of Texas, 16 Republican-led states filed lawsuits.
While applicants can still submit applications, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services cannot process them. That means people may risk losing the almost $600 application fee, along with any additional legal fees, if the program is considered unlawful.
"This is the same strategy that Texas utilized to attack DACA. So we see the same judge, the same folks, doing the same thing," Arturo Jiménez, an MSU Denver professor and immigration lawyer, said. "This time, it’s a little bit different because Joe Biden, the president, implemented this program, followed the administrative procedures act to the 'T' and waited the 60 days allowed for comments, allowed for input from the agency itself, from the public."
Jiménez said he believes in the end, it will likely withstand scrutiny as being legally implemented because Biden utilized the exiting Parole in Place program to launch the Keeping Families Together initiative.
"It could be into next year, hopefully, we see something this year," Jiménez said. "I think the president’s care and detail in implementing this program will hopefully allow it to be reimplemented and resumed, I should say, by the end of this year."