Judge tosses Texas lawsuit challenging Biden parole policy for migrants of certain nationalities

The lawsuit focused on a parole program that permits migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to apply to come to the US and, if approved, temporarily live in the country. The policy, launched more than a year ago, allows up to 30,000 migrants from those four countries to come to the US each month.

Officials have cited the policy for driving down border crossings of those nationalities by providing a legal pathway to the country. Republicans, however, have slammed the Biden administration’s use of parole, arguing that officials are using the authority too broadly as they’ve ramped up their attacks in recent months on President Joe Biden’s broader immigration agenda.

Judge Drew B. Tipton on Friday rejected the challenge filed early last year by Texas, along with other Republican-led states.

“Upon review, Plaintiffs’ theory on injury-infact is unavailing because their proffered re-characterization attempts to skirt the fact that Texas is not financially harmed by the Program,” Tipton wrote in his ruling.

“The Fifth Circuit has consistently looked to the impact that the challenged agency action had on the State’s fiscal interests in DAPA, DACA, MPP I, MPP II, GLO, and LDWF. And in doing so, the Fifth Circuit has invariably considered whether expenditures increased as compared to pre-agency action expenditures,” his ruling states.

“In this case, those expenditures declined subsequent to the implementation of the CHNV Parole Program, and the Court has before it a case in which Plaintiffs claim that they have been injured by a program that has actually lowered their out-of-pocket costs,” it concluded.

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