Judge J. Campbell Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas temporarily put on hold for 14 days the Biden Administration’s “Parole In Place” program that provides parole in place, work authorization, and a green card for undocumented immigrants with U.S. citizen spouses. The program also will eventually put beneficiaries on a path to citizenship. The stay was issued in response to a lawsuit from 16 GOP state attorneys general filed last Friday. In his order, Barker said he decided on the temporary stay after undertaking “a first-blush review” of the merits of the states’ arguments, adding that the claims are “substantial and warrant closer consideration than the court has been able to afford to date.” President Biden responded that the ruling was “wrong” and that families “should not be needlessly separated.”
