The Keeping Families Together program — which allows undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens to apply for citizenship — has been permanently halted. That’s after a district court in Texas ruled against it.
The program uses parole in place to allow undocumented spouses to apply for permanent residency without having to leave the country and face potentially years-long bars on re-entry.
Applicants were required to have been in the U.S. for at least a decade and have no criminal record. Roughly 500,000 people were likely eligible.
District Court Judge J. Campbell Barker issued his ruling just days after a hearing on Election Day, saying the program’s use of parole in place was illegal. It’s permanently shuttered now, but applications had been on hold for months since Texas and other states first filed suit. The Biden administration has not yet said whether it’ll appeal the order.
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The Trump administration has restarted the use of immigration detention for children and families after a more than three year freeze on the practice. Two Texas facilities previously used for that purpose are slated are reopening and immigrant rights experts say some families have already been detained. -
Last November, a Biden administration rule went into effect that allowed DACA recipients to access the health care marketplace for the first time since it was created in 2010. -
The case was filed by refugees, sponsors and resettlement agencies in response to a January executive order and memo that blocked all refugee resettlement and funding. In a ruling late February, a federal judge ordered the government to restart both resettlement efforts and funding. -
This month, the Trump administration announced the resurrection of immigration detention centers that will hold families — a practice that had ended under former President Joe Biden. -
The administration is renaming the app CBP Home. The new function is part of an effort to encourage people living in the United States illegally to leave voluntarily.
