IDAHO, USA — Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador joined 19 other states in filing an immigration lawsuit on Jan. 24 against the Biden administration.
The premise of the lawsuit contends that the recent immigration program laid out by Biden is that it will burden states with more problems, an influx of people and has no legal authority.
Biden's program would allow a certain number of migrants, from specific countries, to enter the U.S. each month. In announcing the program, the White House also said the administration is taking new enforcement measures "to increase security at the border and reduce the number of individuals crossing unlawfully between ports of entry. These measures will expand and expedite legal pathways for orderly migration and result in new consequences for those who fail to use those legal pathways..."
In the lawsuit, against Biden's program, the Idaho section stated:
"Idaho experiences similar harms. Idaho spends significant amounts of money providing services to illegal aliens because of the federal government’s abuses of federal law. Those services include education services and healthcare, as well as many other social services. Federal law requires Idaho to include illegal aliens in those programs. Like many Western states, the number of illegal aliens in Idaho continues to increase — likewise increasing the number of illegal aliens receiving such services."
A press release stated that Labrador would sue to keep the current administration complying with federal immigration laws.
"Federal law tells the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to exercise discretionary authority, evaluating individual immigrants on a 'case-by-case' basis," Labrador said. "The Biden administration is now attempting to create a new federal 'program' that goes way beyond case-by-case review and potentially grants status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. If this administration wants to amend federal immigration law, they need to ask Congress."
In the lawsuit, one of the sources cited was to a report completed by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). FAIR is a nonprofit that opposes immigration and has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
According to the White House website, the program will "expand legal pathways for safe, orderly, and humane migration."
Watch more Local News:
See the latest news from around the Treasure Valley and the Gem State in our YouTube playlist: