Republican attorneys general in eight states filed a lawsuit on Friday asking a federal judge to stop a program that allows children of legal immigrants from Central America to be with their parents.
The attorneys general in Arkansas, Alaska, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, and Texas sued over the program.
There are no lawful paths for aliens who lack status to join other aliens who lack status in the United States. The attorneys general wrote in the lawsuit that it defies common sense.
They said that no nation would reward those who break the law by permitting family members abroad to join them in living in the territory, and that doing so would undermine national sovereignty.
According to the US State Department, the program started in 2014 to give at-risk children in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras the opportunity to come to the United States as refugees.
Under President Joe Biden, the program was expanded to include children of legal guardians and parents who have ongoing asylum cases, according to the Texas Tribune.
On March 10, last year, the program began a two-phase reopening after it was halted by the Trump administration. According to the Washington Post, at the time, Trump's decision to end the program left 2,714 children, who had already received approval, unable to come to the US.
1,465 children who had come to the US under the program, which grants a two-year renewable parole for them to legally live in the US, had to find another way to remain in the country when the program expired, according to the Post.
When the Central American Minors Refugee and Parole Program resumed in March of last year, it was focused on opening cases without an interview.
The State Department announced new guidelines for submissions in June of last year, which required parents from the three countries to be legally living in the US on permanent resident status, temporary protected status, deferred action, or withholding of removal.
The program places a burden on states who are required to provide social services to the children, according to the lawsuit.
The children must be under 21 years old, unmarried, and the parents must provide paperwork to prove their relationship to the child. It can take up to a year for the process to be approved.
The Biden Administration has sown disaster for our country through its illegal, unconstitutional immigration policies, according to Texas Attorney General Paxton.
The Central American Minors Program has contributed to many states being forced to take in more aliens. He said that he and his fellow attorneys general were suing to stop it.
The reopening of the program last year was defended by the Department of State and Homeland Security as a way to deliver a safer and more humane pathway to protection for migrant children who make an often dangerous trek to the US southern border.
We are committed to welcoming people to the United States with respect and love. The State Department and Homeland Security said in a joint statement that they are delivering on their promise to promote safe, orderly, and humane migration from Central America through this expansion of legal pathways to seek humanitarian protection in the United States.
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