McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — Fourteen Republican senators, including both from Texas, have filed legislation to block a key provision of the Biden administration’s Keeping Families Together program, which provides a pathway to citizenship for undocumented spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens.
U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz are among the Republicans who on Wednesday filed the Visa Integrity Preservation Act of 2024, which would require non-citizens who entered the United States illegally or who overstayed their visa for more than six months to leave the United States as they apply for parole.
In June, President Joe Biden issued an executive order announcing the Keeping Families Together program, also known as Parole in Place, which would allow qualifying non-citizens to apply for citizenship from within the United States without having to leave the country. They must have been in the country for a decade at least prior to June 17, and be legally married to a U.S. citizen or the stepchild of a citizen and must not pose a national threat or have a criminal record, according to the order.
But the group of GOP senators said Thursday that the executive order creates a “loophole” for allowing illegal immigration into the United States.
Their bill would require undocumented individuals who are unlawfully in the country to “submit to an in-person interview with a consular officer,” according to the text of the legislation obtained Thursday by Border Report.
“The Biden-Harris administration has waived their magic amnesty wand to create unlawful programs that allow any and every person to enter and stay in the U.S. – legally or not,” Cornyn said in a statement. “By strengthening the laws already on the books, our legislation would root out this massive pull factor while also preserving the integrity of our employment-based nonimmigrant visa program, and I’m grateful to my colleagues for their support.”
“What they call their ‘keep families together’ agenda is being used as a loophole to allow illegal immigrants to bypass our legal immigration process,” Cruz said. “We must send a clear message that the United States will not tolerate any manipulation of our immigration laws. That is why I am proud to join Sen. Cornyn and my Republican colleagues to stop this exploitation of our immigration system.”
The other GOP senators who signed onto the bill include:
- Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, of North Carolina
- Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo, of Idaho
- Sen. Dan Sullivan, of Arkansas
- Sen. Steve Daines, of Montana
- Sens. Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville, of Alabama
- Sens. Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn, of Tennessee
- Sen. Pete Ricketts, of Nebraska
- Sen. James Lankford, of Oklahoma
The program could potentially benefit up to 500,000 undocumented individuals, the Biden administration says.
Tillis calls the program “backdoor amnesty.”
Daines says the bill, if passed by Congress, “will stop the abuse of nonimmigrant visa programs and is a step in the right direction towards holding the Biden administration accountable.”
Biden says he issued the order because Congress has failed to reform immigration and these families are stuck in limbo afraid to be separated for an uncertain amount of time if they leave the country to legally apply for citizenship from abroad.
A federal judge last month temporarily halted the program, drawing criticism and concerns from dozens of migrant advocacy groups and families that support the program.
Applications for the program opened briefly on Aug. 19 but were then halted after the judge’s ruling forbade U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) from issuing any parole grants.
On Sept. 11, the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the pause to the program pending a full ruling from the appeals court.
USCIS says on its website that any parole applications that were approved before Aug. 26 at 6:46 p.m. ET, were not affected by the recent court orders.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, has led a 16-state lawsuit against the program, saying it promotes “illegal immigration.”
This week, supporters of the program sent a signed petition to Ohio’s attorney general asking him to withdraw from the lawsuit with Texas.
Zaira Garcia, Texas director of the nonprofit Fwd.US, posted on X: “The court should move swiftly to dismiss these baseless challenges and restore this program to keep Texas and American families together, strengthen our communities and grow our economy.”
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at [email protected].