The 5th U.S. Circuit of Appeals has set an oral argument for Oct. 10 in a lawsuit filed against the Biden administration regarding Keeping Families Together, a process that provides a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens.
“The district court has entered an administrative stay, expiring September 23, of the defendants’ proposed action and has set a hearing and possible trial for September 18,” the appeals court stated Wednesday.
Shortly after the appeals order, the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Texas filed a notice stating the “September 18, 2024 hearing and trial setting is canceled and that all unexpired deadlines in the court’s scheduling order are stayed.”
The temporary hold on Keeping Families Together is leaving more than half a million people in “a legal limbo waiting,” a Harlingen immigration attorney said.
Today is the deadline for each side’s response to the other side’s omnibus motion.
Attorney Aimeé A. Treviño said KFT is applicable for families with “mixed immigration status.”
“Someone’s a U.S. citizen [and] someone’s not,” Treviño said. “And it’s focused on the spouses of a U.S. citizen and their children. So, if you are undocumented, you don’t have a … legal immigration status and you’re married to a U.S. citizen and you’ve been in the U.S. for 10 years, as of June [17] of 2024, you would have been eligible to apply for this process.”
Sixteen Republican-led states sued the Biden administration on Aug. 23, claiming the KFT program “incentivizes illegal immigration and will irreparably harm the Plaintiff States.”
On Aug. 19, the Department of Homeland Security announced the Keeping Families Together, a process for certain noncitizen spouses and noncitizen stepchildren of U.S. citizens to request Parole in Place.
Parole in Place is an expansion of KFT. Previously, PIP was available only to undocumented family members of U.S. military personnel, veterans and enlistees to stay in the U.S. legally.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Texas Tyler Division, was led by Texas and supported by Idaho, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming.
“Under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the federal government is actively working to turn the United States into a nation without borders and a country without laws,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stated in an Aug. 23 news release. “This violates the Constitution and actively worsens the illegal immigration disaster that is hurting Texas and our country.”
The 56-page suit states Texas spends significant amounts of money providing services to paroled and “illegal aliens” because of “the federal government’s violations of and refusal to enforce federal law.”
“These include education, healthcare, and many other social services,” the suit states. “Federal law requires Texas to include paroled and illegal aliens in some of these programs. As the number of paroled and illegal aliens in Texas increases, the number of paroled and illegal aliens receiving such services likewise increases.”
According to the Biden administration, KFT “will protect approximately half a million spouses of U.S. citizens, and approximately 50,000 noncitizen children under the age of 21 whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen.”
“We know that more than 11 million people currently live undocumented here in the country,” said Joaquin Garcia, director of Organizing at La Unión del Pueblo Entero. “And so, this is a very small population that’s going to get benefited. But if it is permanent, then again, those 500,000 people are still going to be in limbo, and their future is going to still be uncertain because they have been waiting for an opportunity like this for a very long time.”
Andrew Smith, an assistant professor of political science at UTRGV, said the view of the 16 states is to reduce immigration.
“So the attitude of the [16] states is that President Biden is going beyond what he’s allowed to do under the Immigration [and Nationality] Act,” Smith said. “… Given the fact that many of the states involved in this lawsuit have been heavily critical of the Biden administration’s immigration policy, one can make the argument that the reality is this is just a continuation of their desire to cut down on immigration to the United States.”
To qualify for KFT, noncitizen spouses of U.S. citizens must be physically present in the U.S. without legal admission or parole since at least June 17, 2014, have a legally valid marriage to a U.S. citizen on or before June 17, 2024, have no disqualifying criminal history and submit biometrics for background checks.
Noncitizen stepchildren of U.S. citizens must be unmarried and under 21 as of June 17, 2024, also be in the U.S. without legal admission or parole, have a noncitizen parent who was legally married to a U.S. citizen prior to their 18th birthday, have no disqualifying criminal history and submit biometrics for background checks.
Despite the hold, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will continue to accept filings from eligible immigrants.
To apply, there is a $580 fee, a detailed application, an explanation for humanitarian parole and a long list of supporting documents required.
For more information on KFT, visit uscis.gov.
