Judge halts Biden administration program offering legal status to spouses of US citizens

A Texas judge ordered a pause on a Biden administration program that offers legal status to the spouses of U.S. citizens.

The ruling was in response to a lawsuit from 16 Republican state attorneys general led by Texas who argued that the policy encouraged illegal immigration. U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker found some merit to their case.

“The claims are substantial and warrant closer consideration than the court has been able to afford to date,” Barker wrote.

The policy in question offers some of the illegal spouses of U.S. citizens a path to citizenship and the ability to stay in the United States while the process works itself out. The program benefited an estimated 500,000 people.

President Joe Biden announced the program in June, and applications opened up last week. The pause granted by the judge will last two weeks but could be extended.

The states challenging the policy argued the administration pushed it through for “blatant political purposes.”

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Activists were quick to denounce the decision.

“The court’s decision tonight to halt the federal government from providing relief is devastating to the thousands of Texas families that could have benefited from this program,” Jessica Cisneros, an attorney for the advocacy organization the Texas Immigration Law Council, told the Associated Press.