Court Ruling Ends Keeping Families Together Program

A federal court in Texas has ended the Keeping Families Together Program, which allowed certain undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens to apply for work authorization and a pathway to lawful permanent residence while remaining in the U.S. Under the program, applicants would receive a three-year “parole in place” status from which they could then apply for permanent residence.  The court issued its final judgment, ending the program, on November 7, 2024.  

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had launched this program on August 19, 2024, but a group of 16 states, led by Texas, immediately sued the government, arguing the program was unlawful. The program was suspended four days after it started while a final judgment could be made.    

In response to the court’s ruling, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it will no longer accept new applications under this program, and that any pending applications will not be processed. Individuals scheduled for their fingerprinting appointments (“biometrics”) should not attend their appointment. 

USCIS will publish further updates regarding  how it will handle pending applications, and application fees received in the coming days.

This is an unfortunate outcome because the program was designed to benefit spouses of U.S. citizens who had been in the US over ten years.  DHS estimated that the program could potentially benefit up to 500,000 noncitizen spouses and 50,000 noncitizen stepchildren of U.S. citizens. 

This alert is for informational purposes only. Please contact us if you would like to discuss this development further.