The US government will issue refunds to thousands of unauthorized immigrants married to US citizens who applied for the Biden administration program. dismissed in federal courtAccording to internal government documents obtained by CBS News.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, plans to refund the $580 application fee that nearly 94,000 people paid in hopes of benefiting from the Biden administration policy, called Keeping Families Together. The documents show the refund amounts to about $55 million.
announced in june Led by President Biden, this initiative gave an estimated half a million unauthorized immigrants the chance to obtain temporary legal status and a streamlined pathway to permanent residence if they were married to U.S. citizens and had lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years without serious commitment. Were staying. Crime. But a federal judge blocked the policy almost immediately after it took effect in late August, agreeing with Republican-led states who argued that the program violated US immigration law.
Even if the initiative had survived a legal challenge mounted by Republican state officials, it would still have been in the crosshairs of the incoming Trump administration, which has promised to reverse the Biden administration's immigration policies and oversee mass deportations .
The policy to keep families together was designed to help some longtime unauthorized immigrants, a population progressive activists argued would be detrimental to the Biden administration's handling of the record number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. It was ignored amidst the attention.
While marrying a U.S. citizen typically results in a green card, U.S. immigration law requires those entering the country illegally to leave the country and re-enter legally in order to qualify for permanent residence. it occurs. However, undocumented immigrants may be barred from leaving the US for 10 years if they have been in the country unlawfully for a certain period of time.
The program would have allowed eligible applicants to apply for a green card without leaving the country, by providing an immigration classification known as parole that effectively cancels illegal entry and grants temporary work permits. .
In addition to spouses of US citizens, the program will also benefit an estimated 50,000 undocumented stepchildren of US citizens.
When contacted for comment, USCIS confirmed it would close the pending applications and issue refunds to applicants.
“The court has ordered it to be vacated [Keeping Families Together] “The process resulted in requesters having to pay fees for immigration benefit requests that could not be considered without fault,” the agency said in a statement, determining that held that the refunds were “in the public interest and consistent with applicable law.”
