On Monday, August 19, 2024, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began accepting online applications for the Biden Administration’s new family-based Parole-in-Place policy. This groundbreaking program, known as “Keeping Families Together,” has the potential to significantly shorten the path to residency for thousands of noncitizens who entered the country unlawfully but are married to U.S. citizens, as well as for noncitizen stepchildren of those U.S. citizens. By granting them “parole” in the United States, this policy helps keep families together, avoiding the heartbreaking and lengthy separations often required by the traditional process, where individuals must leave the country to apply for residency from abroad.

Starting this past Monday, many eligible individuals have successfully filed the parole-in-place application—Form I-131F, Application for Parole in Place for Certain Noncitizen Spouses and Stepchildren of U.S. Citizens—through USCIS’s user-friendly online system, bringing hope and relief to countless families.

However, late on the night of Thursday, August 23, 16 conservative states, led by Texas, filed a lawsuit in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, challenging the legality of this compassionate program. These states argue that longstanding federal law restricts immigration benefits for those who entered unlawfully, and they seek to halt the program while their legal challenge is pending. Despite this, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in defense of the program, has already requested the court to allow the program to continue, ensuring that families can remain united while the legal process unfolds. The lawsuit thus threatens to suspend the ability of USCIS to accept more applications.

See the Federal Register notice for the new parole-in-place program here, and more information regarding the lawsuit here.​