Judge allows Biden admin program that lets in 30,000 asylum-seekers a month

A federal judge on Friday dismissed a challenge from 21 states against a Biden administration program that allows 30,000 asylum-seekers into the U.S. from four countries each month. 

U.S. District Judge Drew B. Tipton ruled that Texas and 20 other Republican-led states didn’t have legal standing in the lawsuit because they didn’t demonstrate suffered financial harm from the federal program, the Associated Press reported. The program lets a total of up to 30,000 asylum-seekers enter the U.S. each month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. 

“In reaching this conclusion, the Court does not address the lawfulness of the Program,” Tipton wrote in his ruling. 

The states argued that the program forces them to spend millions of dollars on health care, education, and public safety for the asylum-seekers. 

The program “created a shadow immigration system,” claimed an attorney working with Texas GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office. 

The federal government argued that asylum-seekers admitted through the program have aided the farm labor shortage in the U.S. 

After the launch of the program in the fall of 2022, more than 357,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela have received parole and are allowed to enter the U.S. through January. 

There has been a total of 138,000 Haitians, 86,000 Venezuelans, 74,000 Cubans and 58,000 Nicaraguans that have arrived in the U.S. through the program. 

For asylum-seekers to take part in the program, they must apply online, arrive at an airport, and have a financial sponsor in the U.S. They can stay in the country for two years and get a work permit if they are approved.