Texas Asks Federal Judge to End Biden’s Migrant Airlift Program

Texas sued the Biden Administration once again, seeking to end the Obama-era Central American Minor Program.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said:

The Biden Administration has sown nothing but disaster for our country through its illegal, unconstitutional immigration policies. Biden’s latest round of flagrant law-breaking includes his Central American Minors Program, which has contributed significantly to many states being forced to take in even more aliens. My fellow attorneys general and I are suing to stop it.

Texas is joined in its lawsuit by Arkansas, Alaska, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, and Oklahoma.

The Central American Minor program allows certain migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to petition the government to resettle their children in the United States. The migrants must have pending U visas or asylum requests, and their child must be under 21 and unmarried to comply with the law.

The program began in 2014 during former President Barack Obama’s administration but ended in 2017, five days after former President Trump took office. During President Joe Biden announced the program’s revival in an expanded capacity. Instead of parents seeking to have their children brought to the country, “legal guardians” may now petition the government to bring their children to the U.S.

Paxton announced the lawsuit one day after hosting 12 attorneys general at the country’s southern border for a border security summit. This most recent lawsuit marks the 20th time Texas has sued the Biden Administration.

The lawsuit argues that Biden overstepped his executive branch powers and his actions are unlawful because Congress did not authorize the program. The lawsuit said:

To the extent that it provides benefits outside of those provided in law by the Refugee Admissions Program, the CAM Program is an unlawful artifice of the Biden Administration’s imagination, never authorized by Congress.

Paxton added that “it is an extraordinarily disastrous program to employ in the middle of an unprecedented border crisis.”

Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who ordered the Biden Administration to reimplement the Migrant Protection Protocols, will hear the Central American Minors case.

The case is Texas v. Biden, No. 2:22-cv-00014-M in the District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

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