Surrounded by a dozen Republican attorneys general from around the country, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday announced the latest in a series of lawsuits he has filed against the Biden administration.
The suit targets a program first implemented under President Barack Obama which allowed for children from the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to legally apply for refugee status if they meet certain criteria.
“We are filing another lawsuit against the Biden administration today related to the Central American Minors program, which we view as completely illegal,” Paxton said during the news conference in Edinburg.
“It has been used by this administration to bring people from certain countries in and then allow them to bring their families here.”
WHAT IS CAM?
The Central American Minors Program, or CAM, allows for parents or legal guardians who are legally present in the United States to apply for refugee status for their children who are still in one of the three Northern Triangle countries.
In order to qualify, the parent must be a legal permanent resident, have temporary protected status, be in deferred action or deferred departure, be in withholding of removal, or be on parole, according to a FAQ sheet provided by the U.S. Department of State.
The parent may also qualify to apply if they are currently applying for asylum, or even so-called “U-visas,” which are granted to survivors of criminal activity, such as sex trafficking, sexual assault, or domestic violence.
The parent may apply for their children who are under the age of 21 and unmarried, including stepchildren and legally adopted children.
The CAM applications are then processed on the ground in El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras. If a U.S. immigration official determines that a child is not eligible for refugee status, then they “will be considered by USCIS on a case-by-case basis for parole into the United States,” according to the State Department.
While refugees may stay in the United States indefinitely and later apply for status as a permanent resident, those on parole can only remain here temporarily — typically for a two-year term, which can be reapplied — and have no pathway to residency or citizenship.
President Donald Trump halted the program in 2017, but it was reimplemented last March under President Joe Biden.
THE LAWSUIT
Paxton claims the program is an unconstitutional overreach by the Biden administration — an attempt to circumvent current immigration law by creating “rights for certain aliens (by expanding the universe of those granted parole),” according to the complaint.
“The CAM Program is illegal. … And it imposes substantial, irreparable harms on the Plaintiff States,” the complaint further reads.
But according to figures listed in the complaint itself, the program saw few people taking advantage of it under Obama.
Between November 2014 and December 2016, fewer than 10,000 CAM program applications were in process. That was despite nearly 100,000 unaccompanied minors being apprehended by federal officials during fiscal years 2015-16, the lawsuit states.
Nonetheless, Paxton claims it’s impossible to predict the number of people who will apply for the program now, though his filing strikes a frightening tone implying that untold scores of Central American migrant children and their parents will flood into the country.
“The population boom that comes with expanded criteria and a de facto categorical parole program will irreparably harm the Plaintiff States,” the lawsuit states.
THE PARTICIPANTS
The Texas attorney general was joined in the lawsuit by the attorneys general from states far from the Southwest border: Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Montana and Oklahoma.
And though not named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, another signature can be found at the end of the 34-page complaint — that of Gene P. Hamilton, an attorney from Virginia who serves as vice president and general counsel for the America First Legal Foundation.
The American First Legal Foundation touts itself as an organization that “will wage a forceful defense of our rights, our country, and our cherished American way of life,” according to a mission statement posted to its website.
“We will oppose the radical left’s anti-jobs, anti-freedom, anti-faith, anti-borders, anti-police, and anti-American crusade,” the mission statement further reads.
The fundraising nonprofit was founded last spring by Stephen Miller, once a senior White House adviser and largely acknowledged as the architect of Trump’s most restrictive immigration policies.
Its board members include Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, and Gene Hamilton, who once served at the Justice Department, among others.
‘JUDGE SHOPPING’
In a statement Paxton’s office released shortly after the Friday afternoon news conference — which was held at the Border Patrol aircraft hangars north of Edinburg — the attorney general boasted that the lawsuit is the 20th such legal action he has filed against the Biden administration since the president was inaugurated last January.
Paxton also touted it as the “9th border-crisis lawsuit” he has filed.
But while the attorney general announced the lawsuit in Edinburg, his office filed the complaint in Amarillo, in the Northern District of Texas.
That was no accident, according to an expert on the federal court system, Steve Vladeck.
Vladeck, who teaches constitutional and national security law at the University of Texas School of Law, referred to Paxton’s choice of venue for filing the lawsuit as “judge shopping.”
“Judge shopping is finding a way to file your lawsuit so that you know in advance to which judge it is going to be assigned,” Vladeck explained.
Texas federal courts are divided into four different districts. Each district is subsequently subdivided into seven distinct divisions for a total of 28 divisions.
Though every district has multiple district judges who are distributed throughout the divisions, some — particularly those in the more rural parts of the state — may have only one judge, or may have one judge who hears the majority of the cases in that division.
A lawsuit against the federal government may be filed in any division of the country’s 94 district courts. And by filing the CAM Program lawsuit in Amarillo, Paxton has ensured the case will be heard by U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, who was nominated to the federal bench in 2017 by Trump.
“I think by filing where he is, Paxton is assuring himself that these challenges are going to be heard by judges who are sympathetic both to the substance of his claims and to the political agenda they’re advancing,” Vladeck said.
But Vladeck added that the issue of judge shopping isn’t isolated to immigration cases. The issue has become enmeshed in many federal cases — most notably patent cases — since Congress in 1988 repealed a provision that required suits be filed in the division where at least one defendant resided, Vladeck said.
