TEXAS - A coalition of 20 states, led by Texas, are suing the Biden administration over an immigration policy that they consider illegal.
The lawsuit is centered around Biden's immigration policy that will grant 30,000 migrants legal entry into the United States each month for the next two years. In total, the program will bring 720,000 migrants to the U.S. by 2024.
Filed by Texas and America First Legal in the Southern District of Texas, the lawsuit is joined by 19 additional states who are seeking to block the Biden administration’s parole program.
The states joining the lawsuit with Texas are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
In a press release, on Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that the program "unlawfully creates a de facto pathway to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of aliens."
Paxton also said that Texas is struggling to reduce illegal immigration as is and that Biden's policy further complicates matters.
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 said.
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," he added.
Biden introduced the policy to help reduce illegal immigration, which had been surging in the southwest region of the United States.
Despite recent backlash, the Biden administration believes the policy will benefit the country.
An administration official who briefed reporters Wednesday on Biden's new policy said they are confident they have the legal authority to implement this program.
Many leaders of these states keep claiming we need to secure the border, but then they turned around and try to block every measure that we take to do just that,” the official said. “They don't want real solutions They would rather just keep using immigration to try to score political points.”
Despite being harshly criticized by Congress, preliminary data released Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security revealed the new border enforcement measures are working.
Border Patrol apprehensions of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuelan - the four countries the parole program aims to assist - are down 97% since December.
The average number of migrant apprehensions from those countries -- a key indicator of illegal migration -- is 115 per day, down from 3,367 per day at the beginning of December, according to the agency.
Regardless of the illegal immigration reduction, Republican states aren't keen on accepting more migrants and are sounding off about it.
This is a dramatic escalation in the open borders crusade — 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," he said.
While the lawsuit is unlikely to discontinue the program, it could complicate matters for Congress as they try to work together to find a solution.
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