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The Biden administration is seeking to make good on its failed program for illegal immigrants after applicants paid fees in the hopes of obtaining legal status.

The “Keeping Families Together” program was implemented in August and sought to grant legal residency to eligible non-citizen spouses and children of American citizens.

Adult eligible applicants would have to have been married to U.S. citizens and lived in the U.S. for a minimum of 10 years. Children under 21 years old would have to be unmarried and have an illegal immigrant parent who was married to a U.S. citizen to apply. Applicants convicted of violent crimes were reportedly not eligible but there was reportedly wiggle room for those with less severe wrap sheets.

The “Keeping Families Together” program attempted to skirt the law by “allowing beneficiaries to parole in place or remain in the country while awaiting a status adjustment,” according to the Blaze.

The plan touted by the Biden administration was cut short however after pushback from Republican states that claimed it abused existing immigration law. A few months after its implementation  U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker agreed and struck down the program stating the process “is not in accordance with law,” and ruled that the Biden administration lacked the authority to grant “parole in place” to illegal aliens, the Blaze reported.

Now, the Biden administration is scrambling to pay back the fees hopeful applicants and families had paid into “Keeping Families Together” before it was squashed.

Approximately 94,000 people paid the $580 application fee in the hopes of benefitting from the program. The refund in total amounts to roughly $55 million.

Keep in mind, if the program were allowed to continue it was estimated that as many as 500,00 illegal aliens and 50,000 stepchildren would have been eligible to apply, the Blaze reported.

“The court order vacating the [Keeping Families Together] process has resulted in requestors paying a fee for an immigration benefit that, through no fault of their own, cannot be considered,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services stated in response to the court ruling.

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