US judge rejects Republican challenge to Biden migrant sponsorship program

A federal judge in Texas on Friday rejected a challenge by Republican-led states to a Biden administration program that allows hundreds of thousands of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to apply for emergency entry into the United States.

US District Court Judge Drew Tipton in Victoria, Texas, said the 21 states, led by Texas, lacked standing to pursue the 2023 lawsuit because they could not show that the “parole” program, which allows up to 30,000 people per month to enter the US, caused them any injury.

Some 234,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans had entered the US through the program as of November, according to US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) statistics. To qualify, migrants must have a US sponsor and enter the country by air.

Tipton in his ruling noted that the number of people illegally entering the US from the four countries since the program was implemented had dramatically decreased by as much as 44 per cent. The judge did not address the merits of the lawsuit, which claims that DHS lacked the authority to adopt the program.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas praised the ruling, calling the parole program “a key element of our efforts to address the unprecedented level of migration throughout our hemisphere.”

The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, did not respond to a request for comment regarding the decision.