Two days after the US election, a potentially fatal blow has been dealt to one of President Joe Biden’s most significant immigration reforms. A federal judge on Thursday revoked a measure aimed at simplifying obtaining legal status in the United States for spouses of American citizens.
This program, called “Keeping Families Together,” is, according to the decision consulted by AFP, contrary to American laws governing immigration.
Texas federal judge J. Campbell Barker, appointed by Donald Trump during his first term, had already suspended this measure twice since August as part of a procedure initiated by the Republican attorneys general of 16 states Americans who contested this policy of the Biden administration.
The judge’s decision can be appealed, but the election of Donald Trump in Tuesday’s presidential election makes it unlikely that the procedure will succeed. The fight against immigration was the central theme of the campaign, with increasingly racist and violent overtones against migrants, of the Republican billionaire.
The cost of the measure denounced
In June, Joe Biden announced a measure intended to simplify access to citizenship for around half a million immigrants married to American nationals.
The 16 states that filed this lawsuit estimate that this policy costs millions of dollars for public services – particularly in health, education and law enforcement – which they say immigrants use.
These new measures aimed to simplify the procedure for people who already meet the conditions required to obtain permanent residence. They concerned people who had been in the country for at least ten years and married to an American citizen before June 17, 2024, as well as some 50,000 stepchildren of American citizens.
Those whose applications were approved were granted work permits and the right to stay in the United States for up to three years while they applied for a permanent resident green card.
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