Employment Law Report
Keeping Families Together Update
By: Glen W. Krebs
The Biden Administration announced the Keeping Families Together (“KFT”) parole in place program in June of 2024. The KFT program allows undocumented spouses and stepchildren of U.S. Citizens who entered the U.S. without admission and have been in the U.S. continually for 10 or more years to obtain permanent residency, often referred to as a green card. This program would have allowed an estimated 500,000 noncitizen spouses and 50,000 noncitizen stepchildren to seek parole under KFT.
The program was quickly challenged in court and on August 26, 2024, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas entered an administrative stay for an initial period of 14 days prohibiting the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) from granting parole in place under the KFT process. This order was subsequently extended on September 4, 2024. On September 11, 2024 the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit stayed all proceedings before the District Court while upholding the administrative stay of the KFT program. While all of the legal challenges to the KFT program are pending, USCIS will continue to accept applications for KFT, but cannot issue approvals. This has placed many KFT applicants in limbo awaiting future decisions from the Fifth Circuit and caused uncertainty for other eligible applicants that have yet to apply. If you are eligible to apply for KFT parole in place, please reach out to our knowledgeable immigration attorneys at Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, LLP who can assist with processing your application pending the courts’ decisions.
While all of the legal challenges to the KFT program are pending, USCIS will continue to accept applications for KFT, but cannot issue approvals. This has placed many KFT applicants in limbo awaiting future decisions from the Fifth Circuit and caused uncertainty for other eligible applicants that have yet to apply. If you are eligible to apply for KFT parole in place, please reach out to our knowledgeable immigration attorneys at Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, LLP who can assist with processing your application pending the courts’ decisions.
