A federal judge has ruled in favor of a Biden administration policy that allows immigrants to come to the United States legally if they have American sponsors.
The program allows up to 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the country each month.
Texas filed a lawsuit arguing that the program exceeds the administration’s authority.
That was something that states needed to demonstrate in order to have legal standing to file the petition.
However, a federal judge dismissed that lawsuit, alleging that Texas did not prove that the regulations generate damages.
“In reaching this conclusion, the Court does not address the legality of the Program,” Tipton wrote.
In his ruling, the judge argues that the program actually reduces administrative costs.
Eliminating the program would undermine a broader policy intended to encourage immigrants to use the Biden administration’s preferred routes to enter the United States or face harsh consequences.
States, led by Texas, have argued that the program requires them to spend millions on health care, education and public safety for immigrants.
An attorney working with the Texas attorney general’s office on the legal challenge said the program “created a shadow immigration system.”
Defenders of the federal government countered that immigrants admitted through this policy helped alleviate the agricultural labor shortage in the United States.
Friday’s decision “is a clear victory and affirmation that humanitarian parole for immigrants is an indispensable, necessary program and a model of the kind of smart solutions we should focus on to relieve pressure at the border and modernize our broken system of immigration,” said Todd Schulte, president of the immigration advocacy organization FWD.us.
