Judge endorses program with which the United States admits 30,000 migrants from 4 countries each month

The president’s government Joe Biden can continue to apply a program that allows entry into U.S of a limited number of migrants from four countries for humanitarian reasons, after a federal judge on Friday rejected an appeal filed by states with Republican governments.

The federal district judge Drew B. Tipton I say that Texas and 20 other states did not demonstrate that they had suffered economic harm as a result of the humanitarian parole programwhich allows entry into U.Ss of up to 30,000 candidates asylum per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela together. This was something that states needed to demonstrate in order to have legitimacy to initiate action.

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“In reaching this conclusion, the Court does not address the legality of the program“, he wrote Tipton.

Eliminating the program would undermine a broader policy designed to encourage migrants use the routes preferred by the government of Biden to enter U.S or face severe consequences.

The plaintiff states argued that the program forces them to spend millions on health care, education and public safety for migrants.. A lawyer who works for the attorney general’s office Texas In challenging the program before the court, he said it “created an alternative immigration system.”

Defenders of the federal government countered that Migrants admitted under this policy helped alleviate agricultural labor shortages in the United States.

The White House welcomed the decision.

“The district court’s decision is based on the success of this program, which expanded legal avenues for citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who have a sponsor in this country and pass our rigorous vetting process, while drastically decreasing the number of citizens from these countries who cross our southwest border,” said the White House spokesperson. Angelo Fernández Hernández.

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The Texas Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. It is very likely that Texas and the other states appeal the decision.

Since the beginning of the program, at the end of 2022, and until last January, more than 357 thousand people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela have received a conditional humanitarian authorization and was allowed to enter U.S. Haitians were, by far, those who used the program the most: 138 thousand people arrived from that country. After them are 86 thousand Venezuelans, 74 thousand Cubans and 58 thousand Nicaraguans.

Migrants must apply online, arrive by plane and have a financial sponsor in the United States. If entry is approved, they can stay for two years and obtain work authorization.

The president Joe Biden made unprecedented use of its authority to deal with humanitarian parole, which has been in effect since 1952 and allows presidents to allow people in for “urgent humanitarian reasons or for a significant public benefit.”

Esther Sung, an attorney at the Justice Action Center who represented seven people who sponsored immigrants as part of the program, said she was eager to call her clients to tell them of the court’s decision.

“It’s a popular program. “People want to welcome other people to this country.”he stated.

Valerie Laveus, one of seven people represented by the Justice Action Center, sponsored her brother and nephew, who arrived in Florida in August from Haiti, a country currently embroiled in conflict. They are thriving with a new life, he said, and his nephew has found a new normal where he can do things like play basketball outdoors without having to worry about his safety. His brother works in construction.

Laveus said she is grateful for the outcome of the court and that people who enter the country through the program are contributing to society.

“I’m elated, not just for my family, but for all the other families who are still waiting,” she said.

At an August trial in Victoria, Texas, Tipton refused to issue a temporary order that would suspend the national compassionate parole program. Tipton was appointed by former President Donald Trump and ruled against the Biden administration in 2022 over an order determining who should prioritize deportation.

Some states said the initiative benefited them. A Nicaraguan migrant admitted to the country through this process found work on a Washington state farm that was having difficulty finding workers.

Tipton questioned how Texas could be claiming financial losses if data showed that the humanitarian parole program actually reduced the number of migrants entering the United States.

“The Court has before it a case in which plaintiffs allege that they were harmed by a program that actually reduced their expenses,” Tipton said in Friday’s ruling.

When the program took effect, the Biden administration was preparing to end a COVID-19 pandemic-era border policy known as Title 42, which prevented migrants from seeking asylum at ports of entry and under which many people who had entered illegally were quickly expelled.

Proponents of the program also faced scrutiny from Tipton, who questioned whether living in poverty was enough for migrants to qualify for the program. Elissa Fudim, a lawyer at the federal Department of Justice, responded: “I think probably not.”

Lawyers of the federal government and defense groups for the rights of migrants say that, in many cases, Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans are also facing oppressive regimes, increasing violence and increasingly adverse political conditions that pose risks Your lives.

The lawsuit did not challenge the use of humanitarian parole for tens of thousands of Ukrainians who came to the United States after Russia invaded their country. This is one of several legal challenges that the Biden administration has faced in its immigration policies.

Proponents of the program said each case is analyzed individually and that some people who reached the final stages of the process after arriving in the United States were rejected, although they did not provide the number of rejections that occurred.

Friday’s decision “is a clear victory and an affirmation that humanitarian parole is an indispensable, necessary and exemplary program of the kind of smart solutions we must focus on to alleviate pressure at the border and modernize our system of immigration is broken,” said Todd Schulte, president of the migrant rights organization FWD.us.

Source: Elcomercio

jack

I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.