Judge rules Biden’s ‘Keeping Families Together’ program for undocumented spouses is illegal

(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge has struck down the Biden administration’s program known as “Keeping Families Together,” dealing a major blow to the estimated half a million undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens that DHS estimates would have benefited.

The administration announced the program in June, but a coalition of 16 Republican-led states — led by Texas and Stephen Miller’s America First Legal — quickly filed a lawsuit after applications were made available in August.

A federal judge put the program on hold just days after hopeful applicants filed their paperwork.

The program would have provided temporary relief from deportation for undocumented spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens through a process known as “parole in place.” It would have allowed them to apply for legal status without having to leave the country.

On Thursday, Judge J. Campbell Barker ruled in favor of the Republican-led effort to dismantle the program, agreeing with Republican states that the administration had exceeded its statutory authority because the Immigration and Nationality Act allows for paroling people “into the United States,” not to those already in the country.

Noncitizen spouses are already eligible for legal status under current laws but often have to apply from their home countries and face up to a 10-year ban from returning to the U.S.

In August, ABC News spoke with a 24-year-old woman who was one of the first people to be approved under the program. She is married to a U.S. citizen and they have a 3-year-old child.

It’s unclear at the moment what will happen to people who have already submitted their paperwork, like Cecilia, and if they’ll be able to get their application fees refunded.

ABC News has reached out to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the White House for a comment.

“District Court Judge J. Campbell Barker did not just dismantle the Keeping Families Together program, he shattered the hopes of hundreds of thousands of American families. The Biden-Harris program would have allowed noncitizen spouses and noncitizen stepchildren of U.S. citizens to stay in the country after they’ve contributed to our communities, helped grow our economy, and built lives with their loved ones” Ashley DeAzevedo, president of American Families United, said in a statement to ABC News.

“We urge the Biden-Harris administration to immediately appeal Judge Barker’s ruling, preventing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and 15 other Republican Attorneys General cruel lawsuit from devastating over 550,000 individuals in mixed-status families. Families like ours deserve better than this blatant attempt to stop a legal program, and we will not stop until the courts rectify this injustice,” DeAzevedo said.