Undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens are once again in trouble. Here’s what you need to know.

A federal court in Texas has approved one of the largest marijuana legalization initiatives in more than a decade. Temporarily put on holdMore than half a million people were stranded.

The program, announced by the Biden administration in June, allows spouses of undocumented Americans to apply for green cards without leaving the U.S. About 500,000 spouses and 50,000 stepchildren will be eligible for the program, according to senior administration officials.

Attorneys General of 16 red states including Texas, Florida and Georgia debate The court has given the states two weeks to provide evidence that they would be permanently harmed if the program were reinstated. The court will then rule on whether a long-term block on the program is appropriate.

Technically, individuals who qualify for the new program have always been able to apply for permanent residency through their U.S. citizen spouse or stepparent, but to do so, their families would have to be separated, making the application impractical or even impossible.

This is because undocumented immigrants must leave the United States as part of the green card application process. If they initially enter the United States without permission and stay for more than a year, they are not allowed to legally re-enter for 10 years. Immigrants can Apply for exemption But the process faces serious backlogs.

If upheld, the new plan would effectively allow noncitizen spouses and stepchildren to circumvent the 10-year ban through parole, thereby protecting them from deportation and obtaining work authorization.

While the government cannot process applications for the scheme due to a court order, individuals can still submit applications in the hope that the scheme will be allowed to resume.

Crucially, this is likely to happen only after an appeals process following the November election. If former President Donald Trump had been elected, he was expected to scrap the program because it conflicted with his campaign promise to Deporting illegal immigrants Live in the United States.

The program should be able to withstand court challenges, based on previous cases in which Biden has invoked legal authority to create the program. Jeremy McKinneyformer president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

The plan relies on the president’s power to issue so-called “parole in situ,” which Republican and Democratic presidents have used for decades to allow immigrants to stay in the U.S. temporarily or, on a case-by-case basis, for humanitarian reasons (or because it would greatly benefit the public). Parole for undocumented relatives of U.S. military personnel.

Part of the reason the new program could help as it faces legal challenges is that it does not create a new path to citizenship for immigrants, but instead relies on the existing parole system to make it easier for spouses of undocumented immigrants to obtain legal status for which they are already eligible.

“All it does is make it easier for mixed-status families to stay together while they go through the legal immigration process,” McKinney said. “It’s not a shortcut to the normal system.”

He noted that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the appeals court that is likely to hear the case, recognized the president’s power of in-place parole in 2021, when it called it a “means to remove barriers that prevent (immigrants) from obtaining government benefits.”

“I do think the legal environment is favorable for these applicants,” he said.

Those who qualify for the program may continue to submit applications.

To qualify for the new program, spouses must be in the U.S. but not lawfully admitted to the country or previously paroled. They must also have lived in the U.S. for at least ten years and be legally married to a U.S. citizen as of June 17, 2024. And, according to a senior administration official, they must be “worthy of discretion” and not pose a threat to public safety.

To qualify, a stepchild must be unmarried and under the age of 21. The parent must have been married to a U.S. citizen before the stepchild turned 18.

The decision whether to apply may ultimately depend on whether the applicant is willing to take on the financial risk during the program suspension. The application fee is $580 per person, excluding any costs of hiring an attorney to prepare the application.

“They’re taking a financial gamble, so to speak,” McKinney said. “So if money is tight, they may want to wait until the litigation is resolved.”