US judge upholds Immigrant Residency Program

WASHINTON – A federal judge has rejected a motion to halt a critical Biden administration program that offers temporary residency in the United States to qualifying immigrants from select Latin American nations.

US District Judge Drew Tipton rejected a legal challenge to the so-called parole programme and ruled that Lone Star State i.e. Texas lacked standing to challenge the program.

As far as the details are concerned, Texas contended that the programme would attract more and more migrants to the country and would eventually lead to the state allocating more resources.

The program allows a total of 30,000 asylum-seekers into the U.S. each month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela combined and Texas and 20 other states argued that the program is forcing them to spend millions on health care, education and public safety for the migrants. It was also said that the program created a shadow immigration system.

On the other hand, advocates for the federal government argued that migrants admitted through the policy helped with a U.S. farm labor shortage.

It bears mentioning that during an August trial, Tipton declined to issue any temporary order that would have halted the parole program nationwide.

Interestingly, Judge Tipton is an appointee of billionaire-turned-President Donald Trump who ruled against the Biden administration in 2022 on an order that determined whom to prioritize for deportation.

During the hearings, the judge questioned how Texas could be claiming financial losses if data implied that the parole program actually reduced the number of migrants coming into the U.S, Voice of America reported.

A few days earlier, the US Supreme Court had also blocked the controversial Texas immigration law that permits police to arrest migrants who illegally cross the border from Mexico and imposes criminal penalties.

The law named SB4 was set to go into effect this month; however, the law was temporarily blocked till March 13th.