OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.

The immigration policies of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been disastrous for the United States and now a group of Republican states, led by Texas, is suing over one of those policies known as “parole in place.”

The Republican states said in the lawsuit that the program creates a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, skirting by Congress, for “political purposes,” Just The News reported.

“This action incentivizes illegal immigration and will irreparably harm the Plaintiff states,” the plaintiffs said in the lawsuit.

The program was started on Monday and it allows the illegal immigrant spouses of citizens to stay in the United States and apply for a green card with a pathway to become citizens.

“In order to qualify for the program, the spouse must have been in the United States for at least 10 years, have no disqualifying criminal history, and have been married to the U.S. citizen by June 17,” the report said.

But the administration said it would defend the program and accused Republicans of “playing politics” with the border and not searching for a solution to the crisis.

“This lawsuit is seeking to force U.S. citizens and their families, people who have lived in the United States for more than ten years, to continue to live in the shadows,” a spokesperson for the White House said.

The former Border Patrol union head claims that since President Joe Biden gave Vice President Kamala Harris the responsibility to address the underlying causes of illegal immigration in 2021, Harris has fallen short.

“It’s very disappointing,” Brandon Judd, who recently retired as president of the Border Patrol Union, told Fox News. “We gave her the policies that she needed to implement. She refused to implement those.”

Judd’s remarks coincide with heightened scrutiny of Harris’s immigration and border security record in the days following Biden’s announcement that he would not be running for president and would instead support his vice president to succeed him. Critics claim Harris has fallen short on a key topic that will determine the outcome of the 2024 election.

In response to opponents who had already pointed out the increased influx of migrants within months of Biden’s election, the president appointed Harris to head the administration’s campaign to counter migration in March 2021.

On the day of the announcement, the Associated Press reported that Harris was assigned to supervise diplomatic endeavors in the Northern Triangle nations of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Officials from the administration told AP that Harris would be tasked with developing a long-term plan to address the underlying causes of migration from those nations, in addition to working to pressure those nations to tighten immigration laws and safeguard their own borders.

“The vice president has agreed – among the multiple other things that I have her leading, and I appreciate it – agreed to lead our diplomatic effort to work with those nations to accept returnees and enhance migration enforcement at their borders,” Biden said during the announcement.

“Needless to say, the work will not be easy,” Harris said at the time. “But it is important work.”