(Headline USA) Federal courts this week shut down two different “amesty” schemes that President Joe Biden had pushed as ways to win additional votes while he was still the presumptive Democrat nominee.
A federal judge in Texas on Monday paused a controversial Biden–Harris policy to give spouses of U.S. citizens a fast-track to legal status.
‼️HUGE VICTORY‼️
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas just temporarily FROZE the Biden-Harris administration’s illegal executive amnesty program following our lawsuit against DHS with @KenPaxtonTX @Raul_Labrador and a coalition of 14 states. https://t.co/y4RJakGYef pic.twitter.com/cwR9ysynOc
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) August 26, 2024
The plan, which Biden unveiled in June, was set to take effect prior to the November election, would have added an estimated half a million new voters but faced challenges from a coalition of conservative watchdog groups and policymakers, including America First Legal.
The administrative stay issued by U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker came just days after 16 states, led by Republican attorneys general, accused the administration of bypassing Congress for “blatant political purposes.”
The court order, which lasts for two weeks but could be extended, came a week after the Department of Homeland Security began accepting applications.
One of the states leading the challenge was Texas. The lawsuit argued that the state has had to pay tens of millions of dollars annually from health care to law enforcement because of illegals living in the state.
“The claims are substantial and warrant closer consideration than the court has been able to afford to date,” wrote Barker, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump in 2019 to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, which lies in the same bailiwick as the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The judge laid out a timetable that could produce a decision shortly before the presidential election Nov. 5 or before a newly elected president takes office in January. Barker gave both sides until Oct. 10 to file briefs in the case.
Biden, while vacationing in Rehoboth Beach this week, lashed out in reaction to the news.
“… I am not interested in playing politics with the border or immigration; I am interested in solving problems,” he falsely claimed in a statement released by the White House.
“Nor am I interested in tearing families apart,” he added. “That is not who we are as Americans. I will continue to fight to secure our border and fix our broken immigration system.”
However, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, cheered the order.
“This is just the first step. We are going to keep fighting for Texas, our country, and the rule of law,” Paxton posted on X.
In a post reacting to Biden’s rant, Paxton called out the president for lying about the scope of the amnesty proposal.
Biden is lying. This unlawful scheme is about fast-tracking over 1 million illegal aliens for citizenship and rewarding them with full benefits and voting rights. By federal law, they are NOT ELIGIBLE for parole. That’s why Texas sued.
Now that we temporarily blocked their… https://t.co/dri0huNphz
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) August 27, 2024
Separately on Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court shut down Biden’s latest attempt at student-loan amnesty.
A lower court had already blocked the effort, following SCOTUS’s earlier precedent telling Biden’s Department of Education that such measures would require legislative action from Congress to be legitimate.
In a unanimous decision, however, the high court unanimously denied a request for an emergency appeal, kicking it back to the lower courts for their ruling.
🚨BREAKING: The Supreme Court unanimously upheld our court order BLOCKING @KamalaHarris and @JoeBiden' illegal student loan cancellation scheme.
This is a HUGE victory for the working Americans who won't have to foot the bill for the Biden-Harris Ivy League bailout. pic.twitter.com/iK8G1yORHt
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) August 28, 2024
“[W]e are disappointed in this decision, particularly because lifting the injunction would have allowed for lower payments and other benefits for borrowers across the country,” a DOE spokesperson said in a statement, according to Nevada Current.
However, the Democrat administration planned on working “to minimize further harm and disruption to borrowers as we await a final decision from the Eighth Circuit,” the spokesperson added. “[T]he Biden–Harris Administration remains committed to supporting borrowers and will continue to fight for the most affordable repayment options for millions of people across the country.”
Some social-media users seemed to believe that the lame-duck president would not relent in his efforts to find workaround loopholes that would allow recent college graduates—and some long-term absconders—to game the system at the expense of other taxpayers.
Biden's handlers will propose a new illegal plan tomorrow.
— HeftyJ (@hefty_j16677) August 28, 2024
Biden already indicated that he would seek to take revenge on the Supreme Court for thwarting his agenda when he unveiled a raft of reforms that would impose term limits on justices—and which some suspected was a prelude to court-packing.
For now, the so-called reforms appear to be a non-starter since they would require support from the Republican-led House, as well as having parts that would likely require a new amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
However, should Vice President Kamala Harris and her socialist sidekick, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, be elected to complete Biden’s handiwork, Democrats have signaled that they would push hard for measures that would roll back any existing constitutional checks on their power.
“President Biden and I are calling on Congress to pass important reforms—from imposing term limits for Justices’ active service, to requiring Justices to comply with binding ethics rules just like every other federal judge,” Harris said last month in a statement, according to WGME.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
