Twenty states sued the Department of Homeland Security and its leadership Tuesday over a humanitarian parole program the Biden administration hopes will reduce irregular migration from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua, arguing that it is a violation of federal immigration law and an overreach of executive power.
“The Plaintiff States ... face substantial, irreparable harms from the Department’s abuse of its parole authority, which allow potentially hundreds of thousands of additional aliens to enter each of their already overwhelmed territories,” says the lawsuit, which was filed by the governments of 20 states.
At the heart of the lawsuit is a new parole process set up for Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans that allows nationals from these countries to apply for humanitarian parole. The migrants can be approved to live and work in the United States as long as they pass medical and background checks, have a financial sponsor in the country and pay for their air fare.
