On June 18, the White House announced Biden would be using executive action to grant amnesty to noncitizen spouses and children of U.S. citizens, a move that is anticipated to impact around 500,000 people. Under the executive order, illegal alien spouses would be shielded from deportation and provided a pathway to citizenship, as well as authorization to work legally in the United States. The plan would protect individuals in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. The White House says the action will “bring peace of mind and stability to Americans living in mixed-status families,” but critics point out a key flaw with Biden’s strategy: it’s illegal. Congressman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) released a statement blasting Biden’s executive action, charging that such action is prohibited under federal law and represents an abuse of parole authority under Section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). “President Biden’s election-year, eleventh-hour ploy for mass amnesty is not surprising, but it is an important reminder for anyone who doubted — this administration was never serious about securing the border,” said Green, who also chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security. The committee says that following a review of data from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Biden administration has granted parole to more than two million illegal aliens whose status rendered them inadmissible into the U.S.President Joe Biden is facing fierce pushback over a proposal to unilaterally grant amnesty to large numbers of illegal aliens residing in the U.S.
🚨🚨 Following review of DHS’ own numbers, the Committee has found that under President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas, more than *two million* inadmissible aliens have received parole in the context of the border crisis!
This includes paroles by USBP, OFO, ICE, and USCIS.
— House Homeland GOP (@HomelandGOP) June 18, 2024 “Biden and his now-impeached DHS secretary have paroled roughly two million inadmissible aliens into the country, likely with no plan to remove them once their parole expires,” Green continued. “Today’s executive order further legitimizes unlawful entry into our country — an affront to the rule of law and an insult to every American.” Shortly after Biden’s plan was announced, America First Legal (AFL) pledged to challenge Biden’s plan in the courts, calling the mass amnesty plan a “slap in the face to immigrants who come to the United States lawfully” and an “abuse of an extremely limited authority in law” by the administration. “In the middle of a raging deadly border invasion, on the heels of illegal aliens let into the country by Biden being charged with the most heinous rapes and murders of children and mothers, Biden has issued one of the largest executive amnesties in American history,” said Stephen Miller, AFL president and key architect of former President Donald Trump’s border security strategy. “Congress has, for decades, refused to grant citizenship to illegal aliens. Now, acting as a tyrant king, Biden is circumventing Congress and incinerating the Constitution to unilaterally grant a pathway to citizenship to what will amount to potentially millions of illegals,” he added.
To the young citizens of America: Biden is giving your jobs, your dreams, your communities and your futures to illegal aliens. https://t.co/98u42P1QNH Miller says this includes illegal aliens who are DACA recipients and illegal aliens with online degrees or college diplomas. “Once granted green cards, illegals will have access to government benefits,” he said. “Once granted citizenship — in as soon as five years — illegals will have full access to welfare, entitlements, the voting booth, and chain migration, meaning entire illegal alien extended family networks and be made into full voting citizens.” In a statement posted to X, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the mass amnesty order “blatantly illegal,” predicting it would be struck down by the courts who would re-affirm that only Congress has the authority to make or change immigration laws.
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) June 19, 2024
President Biden’s mass amnesty is blatantly illegal.
His proposal will be stricken down by the courts for a simple reason: it is Congress, NOT the President, that has the authority to make or change immigration laws.
Read my full statement here: https://t.co/8NrylPxFRP pic.twitter.com/5k3yEf93Eb
— Gov. Greg Abbott (@GovAbbott) June 18, 2024
“Rather than solving the border crisis he caused, President Biden’s mass amnesty will be another magnet to attract migrants to flood across our border illegally,” Abbott said. “President Biden needs to stop rewriting immigration law and start enforcing it.”
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) responded to the announcement by stating that Biden’s proposal “has no basis in law” and was “conjured up in a 1998 memorandum by the Clinton administration and has been abused by subsequent administrations to create a path to citizenship for various groups of illegal aliens,” the organization said in a statement.
The federal parole statute only grants authority to allow inadmissible illegal aliens into the U.S. on a temporary, case-by-case basis.
“Two weeks ago, the president sought to appease the vast majority of Americans alarmed by the historic wave of illegal immigration – triggered by his own policies – by issuing a proclamation that claims to get tough on border enforcement and asylum abuse,” noted Dan Stein, FAIR President. “That so-called enforcement order contains so many loopholes and exceptions that it amounts to little more than a speed bump for illegal aliens who continue to arrive here in record numbers.”
