The Texas Attorney General's office filed a lawsuit Thursday to block the Department of Homeland Security from allowing more asylum-seekers to remain in the United States.
Last month, Homeland Security and the Department of Justice announced the change in screening procedures. Typically, U.S. immigration judges would carry out credible fear screenings for those seeking asylum.
But Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, in the Thursday lawsuit, said the policy shift violates the law and will invite more illegal immigrants into the United States because it limits immigration judges' power.
"The Interim Rule transfers significant authority from immigration judges to asylum officers, grants those asylum officers significant additional authority, limits immigration-judge review to denials of applications, and upends the entire adjudicatory system to the benefit of aliens," the Texas Republican wrote in the lawsuit.
Paxton submitted the latest lawsuit to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. It's the 11th immigration-related lawsuit he's filed against the Biden administration, which Paxton has previously accused of abdicating its border security responsibility.
Paxton claimed that Texans "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," he continued.
In a news release at the time, Mayorkas also asserted that the policy shift is something that was "long needed" and said that "those who are not eligible will be rapidly removed."
Earlier this week, a federal judge ruled against the Biden administration's plan to end the Title 42 health order that was established during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.
The Epoch Times has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment.