US judge rejects state challenge to Biden migrant sponsorship program

Source: Reuters

March 8, 20246:23 PM EST


March 8 (Reuters) - A U.S. 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.

U.S. 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 program, which allows up to 30,000 people per month to enter the U.S., caused them any injury.

Some 234,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans had entered the U.S. through the program as of November 2023, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) statistics. To qualify, migrants must have a U.S. sponsor and enter the country by air.

Tipton in his ruling noted that the number of people illegally entering the U.S. from the four countries since the program was implemented had dramatically decreased by as much as 44%. The judge did not address the merits of the lawsuit, which claims that DHS lacked the authority to adopt the program. The U.S. Department of Justice and the office of Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-judge-rejects-state-challenge-biden-migrant-sponsorship-program-2024-03-08/