Attorneys General from Texas, Idaho, and 14 other states filed suit against the Biden-Harris administration on Friday over a new policy that would allow 1 million illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship without having to first leave the United States.
America First Legal also joined the lawsuit against the policy titled "Keeping Families Together," which took effect on Monday.
The policy, first announced by the White House in June, would allow 500,000 families and another 50,000 stepchildren under 21, already in the country illegally, to apply for lawful permanent residence while paroling in place.
The AGs and Stephen Miller of AFL said that violates the Administrative Procedures Act, among other issues.
"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. I will not let this happen. Biden's new parole workaround unilaterally grants the opportunity for citizenship to unvetted aliens whose first act on American soil was to break our laws. This violates the Constitution and actively worsens the illegal immigration disaster that is hurting Texas and our country," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement.
AGs from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wyoming also joined onto the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
The suit accuses the Biden-Harris administration — "dissatisfied with the system Congress created, and for blatant political purposes" — of trying to create its own immigration system.
Further, it says "DHS 'cannot use that power to parole aliens en masse,' which is precisely what PIP amounts to." The suit says that the policy "incentivizes illegal immigration."
Said Miller, "It is brazenly unlawful, a deadly accelerant to the ruinous border invasion, and we will use every lawful tool to stop it."