Federal judge rejects Biden's plan for undocumented spouses

Nov. 8 (UPI) -- A U.S. district judge in Texas ruled on Thursday that President Joe Biden did not have the authority to provide deportation protection for undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens.

The ruling by federal Judge J. Campbell Barker was a win for Republican attorneys general, led by Texas' Ken Paxton, who argued that the new program created by the White House was a drain on their resources and a magnet for other immigrants to cross the border.

Biden's Keeping Families Together initiative was placed on hold by Barker days before it was supposed to have gone into effecct. The initiative would have likely ended with incoming President Donald Trump.

Current law forces such immigrants to leave the country and apply for a green card, which could mean separation from their families for years. Biden's plan applied to those who had been in the United States for 10 years or more.

The Justice Department has the option to appeal the decision but that seems unlikely with a new administration taking over within months.

The federal government estimates that there are about 500,000 undocumented immigrants living in the shadows while married to U.S. citizens. They said the average undocumented immigrant in such relationships lived in the country for an average of 23 years.

Conservatives, however, have argued that the initiative is an end run around current law and current legal pathways to citizenship.