
U.S. refunding application fees for Biden immigration program for spouses of citizens
CBSN
The U.S. government will issue refunds to tens of thousands of unauthorized immigrants married to American citizens who applied for a Biden administration program that was struck down in federal court, according to internal government documents obtained by CBS News.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, plans to refund the $580 application fee that roughly 94,000 people paid in hopes of benefiting from the Biden administration policy, dubbed Keeping Families Together. The refunds amount to about $55 million, the documents show.
Announced in June by President Biden, the initiative offered an estimated half a million unauthorized immigrants a chance to get temporary legal status and a streamlined path to permanent residency, if they were married to U.S. citizens and had lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years without committing serious crimes. But a federal judge halted the policy almost immediately after it took effect in late August, agreeing with Republican-led states that argued the program flouted U.S. immigration law.

WASHINGTON — An American intelligence assessment of the Ecuadorian presidential election, set for Sunday, concluded that a reelection of the incumbent president would better serve U.S. national security interests over the challenger. The assessment comes as the Trump administration mulls establishing a permanent U.S. military presence in the South American country, once known as the "island of peace," to help battle violent gangs, CBS News has learned.