XINHUA

The state of Texas filed a lawsuit against the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday, My 23, over a newly introduced asylum rule allowing migrants to set up appointments at the U.S.-Mexico border via a phone app to seek asylum in the United States.

The case, launched by Texas’ Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, came just days after Florida’s Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a similar suit against the Biden administration over its parole-release program for migrants at the southern border.

Both Paxton and Moody went on Fox News Sunday, May 21, to explain that the policy, which allows for the release on parole of some migrants into the interior without a court date, is illegal.

The practice was establish on May 10 through a memo titled Parole with Conditions one day prior to a pandemic-era Title 42 law expired.

Title 42, which was implemented in March 2020 under the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to prevent the spread of covid-19, allowed U.S. authorities to immediately turn away migrants at the border.

Under the new Parole with Conditions rule, CBP officials were authorized to release migrants on overcrowding grounds as of May 12.

“The Biden administration deliberately conceived of this phone app with the goal of illegally pre-approving more foreign aliens to enter the country and go where they please once they arrive,” Paxton said, adding the Biden administration “is encouraging illegal immigration.”

The Texas suit argues that the app, known as CBP One, doesn’t verify whether the migrants seeking appointments would qualify for entering the United States and therefore essentially encourages people to come to the country even though they don’t have legal basis to stay.

Additionally, more asylum seekers will increase the financial burden of Texas through health care and education expenses, the suit states.

The Biden administration has said that the app would allow a more orderly asylum process, but the app has been consistently criticized for technological and procedural problems since it was rolled out in January.

The program establishes a pathway for up to 30,000 migrants each month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to petition for asylum in the United States and also includes a commitment from the Mexican government to accept up to 30,000 migrants from those four countries if they don’t meet the requirements for asylum or parole.

On Tuesday, May 23, Paxton claimed that the program “unlawfully creates a de facto pathway to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of aliens.”

Along with Texas, 19 mostly GOP-led states have joined the suit filed in the U.S. District Court’s Southern District of Texas.

“Every state in America, especially border states like Texas, is being crushed by the impacts of illegal immigration,” Paxton said.

“The Biden open borders agenda has created a humanitarian crisis that is increasing crime and violence in our streets, overwhelming local communities, and worsening the opioid crisis.”

Paxton went on to say that “this unlawful amnesty program, which will invite hundreds of thousands of aliens into the United States each year, will only make this immigration crisis drastically worse.”