A federal judge has struck down Biden’s immigration policy protecting selected spouses of undocumented US citizens from deportation.

CNN
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A federal judge on Thursday overturned the Biden administration’s “parole” policy that gave legal status to some undocumented people married to U.S. citizens.

US District Judge J. Campbell Barker previously imposed administrative arrest on this regulation, released earlier this year when President Joe Biden was running for re-election, a judge was considering a lawsuit brought by Texas and 15 other states. The policy protected selected spouses of undocumented U.S. citizens from deportation and allowed them to work legally in the country as they pursued citizenship.

In his decision Thursday on the merits of the case, Barker, appointed by President-elect Donald Trump during his first term, said Congress had not granted the executive branch the authority to enact such policies. He wrote that “history and purpose confirm that defendants’ views” of the relevant immigration law “exceed the scope of its critical interpretation.”

The case is one of several ongoing legal challenges to Biden administration policies that the incoming Trump administration may refuse to defend once the White House changes hands.

Barker rejected a request from those benefiting from the program to intervene in the case so they could also defend the policy.