Meet American Families They’re Trying to Deport
The Associated Press reports that the Garcias “had just paid an attorney $3,000” to help them with their paperwork for the Biden administration’s new process protecting the undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens when they heard some devastating news. The newly launched policy, known as Keeping Families Together, was now on hold following a pro-family separation lawsuit launched by Texas, 15 other states, and key Project 2025 allies.
Roberto Garcia runs a construction business in southern California and helps support relatives in Mexico. He’d hoped relief under the policy would help his family continue to thrive. But now, they remain in limbo and are unsure about their next steps. “I didn’t think this was going to happen. It’s very hard,” he told the AP. “We are not a priority. It is bad that they play with people’s feelings.”
In Texas, Dreamer Oscar Silva hoped the Keeping Families Together process would allow him to finally permanently settle in the only country he’s ever known as home after arriving here when he was just a toddler. “Silva said he and his wife, Natalie, a US citizen, had been banking on parole in place to secure their future,” The Guardian reported. Then, the family heard about the news.
“I wish everyone could see that my wife and I are just like every other married couple you know,” he told The Guardian. “We want to be able to live knowing that the life we’re building won’t be taken away from us. The parole process would make that a reality.” As we’ve previously noted, some of the most toxic and weird figures of the anti-immigrant movement are behind this despicable lawsuit seeking to tear American families apart.
At the helm of the state’s side is corrupt Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who, when not trying to deport hardworking moms and dads, keeps himself busy by harassing civic-minded abuelas to undermine our democracy. Paxton and 15 states are being represented by America First Legal, an extremist and xenophobic group led by Stephen Miller and Gene Hamilton, who are both top allies of the draconian Project 2025. Knowing the Biden administration’s process was sound and legal policy, this cadre of states and anti-immigrant activists took their case to what America’s Voice legal advisor David Leopold has coined “the anti-immigrant judicial pipeline,” where a Trump-appointed judge in Texas gave them the ruling they sought.
“While it’s not surprising to again see the anti-immigrant judicial pipeline in action, that shouldn’t overshadow how extreme the ruling and the larger transparent strategy on display remains,” Leopold said. “This new program to keep families together is based on existing law and is a step forward toward real policy solutions in the absence of federal reform.”
On Monday, the Trump-appointed judge chosen by Paxton and the others to hear the case, J. Campbell Barker, denied Justice Action Center and Make the Road New York’s “motion to intervene.” This was an effort to include the voices of 11 directly impacted individuals and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights so that their perspectives could also be heard by the court. Paxton, his fellow AGs, and their Miller/Hamilton white nationalist legal team opposed the motion.
One potential intervenor defendant, Pennsylvania attorney Foday Turay, said that the Keeping Families Together process “would truly be an answer and a prayer” for him. “It would give my family stability. It would give me security. It would allow me to look at my son in the eye and say ‘I’m here to say,’ and actually mean it.” The anti-immigrant judicial pipeline keeps flowing – and keeps hurting our neighbors.
One of our potential intervenor defendants, Foday Turay, was on @MSNBC w/ @drnoriega sharing the importance of #KeepingFamiliesTogether Parole and what it'd mean for him and his family. Foday is a prosecutor in Pennsylvania originally from Sierra Leone, who fled because of war. pic.twitter.com/LOEUtAagG7
— Justice Action Center (JAC) (@jactioncenter) August 28, 2024
In Illinois, Giselle Rodriguez said her family was “really excited for the parole in place, but now that we saw they have put a stay on, it’s frustrating and upsetting,” WTTW reports. “Especially because we did so much work on different levels not just for me and my family but for the community work that we do.” Rodriguez, who has three kids and is married to a U.S. citizen, is executive director of Illinois Workers in Action, which seeks to empower local community members experiencing wage theft, workplace harassment, and break and meal violations.
By threatening to tear Rodriguez from her home as well as the pro-worker organization she co-founded, the harms of this pro-family separation lawsuit stands to reverberate through an entire community.
In a statement, President Biden forcefully denounced the Texas ruling, saying it was “wrong” and that families like the Garcias, Silvas, the Rodriguezes, and the Turays “should not be needlessly separated.”
“America is not a country that tears families apart … These married couples—in which one spouse is a United States citizen and the other has been living in America for 10 years or more—include our neighbors who have been working, raising their families, paying taxes, worshipping with us, and sending their kids to school,” President Biden said. “I am not interested in playing politics with the border or immigration; I am interested in solving problems. Nor am I interested in tearing families apart. That is not who we are as Americans.”
