A federal judge in Texas has temporarily halted a Biden administration policy that would grant legal status to spouses of US citizens without requiring them to leave the country. This decision, made by US District Judge J. Campbell Barker, comes in response to a challenge from 16 states, primarily led by Republican attorneys general.
The program, announced by President Joe Biden in June, aims to benefit an estimated 500,000 immigrants in the US along with approximately 50,000 of their children. Texas, a key state in the legal challenge, argued that it has incurred significant costs due to providing services like healthcare and law enforcement to immigrants living in the state without legal status.
