‘Cheap, Easy Incentives’: Texas Sues Biden Admin Over Immigration Rules

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Biden administration over its asylum procedures for migrants.

The lawsuit against several U.S. government agencies and officials, including Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, alleges the administration’s changes to the asylum and parole processes are “incentivizing” illegal immigration.

“I protested the proposed version of these rules back in October 2021, and, unsurprisingly, Biden found a way to make it worse, so I’m suing. The last thing Texas needs is for this Administration to make it easier for illegal aliens to enter the U.S. and obtain asylum through false claims and less oversight,” Paxton said in a statement.

One of the policies the lawsuit targets is the use of asylum officers to issue asylum rulings, rather than judges. The policy began in March to address the years-long waits due to a court backlog for those claiming asylum in the U.S.

However, Texas argues in its complaint that the rule is “contrary to law and should be held unlawful and set aside.”

Paxton argued that the illegal immigration will only be exacerbated by the end of Title 42, the pandemic policy used to quickly expel certain migrants that is set to expire May 23.

“We know what’s going to happen when the rule goes into effect in May 2022: wave upon wave of illegal aliens claiming ‘asylum.’ It’s true that our immigration system is extremely backlogged. But the answer is to secure the border, not overwhelm it even more by enacting cheap, easy incentives for illegal aliens to get into the United States,” Paxton said.

DHS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Texas v. Biden (Asylum Rule Complaint) (as-filed 04.28.2022) by Daily Caller News Foundation on Scribd