Judge Blocks Biden's Plan to Legalize Immigrants Married to U.S. Citizens

Illustrative photo from open sources

A Texas court has ruled against President Joe Biden's program offering a path to citizenship for some spouses of U.S. citizens, potentially blocking the program during Biden's final months in the White House, Reuters reports.

U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker ruled that he believed Biden had exceeded his executive authority in enacting the program, which offers a path to citizenship to about 500,000 immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally but then married American citizens.

The initiative, called “Keeping Families Together,” was launched in August but was blocked within days by Barker, who left it in limbo while a lawsuit filed by Texas and a coalition of U.S. states with Republican attorneys general was heard.

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Biden announced the program in June, before dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.

Harris lost the election to Republican Donald Trump, a hard-liner on immigration. Trump is expected to wage a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration and is likely to reverse Biden's initiative for spouses of immigrants, which the Trump campaign has called a “mass amnesty.”

Americans view immigration as one of the most pressing issues Trump must address when he takes office in January, with a majority expecting him to order mass deportations of people living in the United States illegally, according to a Reuters-Ipsos poll completed Thursday.

The Biden administration may appeal the ruling. The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

Prepared by: Sergei Daga