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Supreme Court extends block on Texas law which allows state’s cops to arrest illegal migrants

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Social Links for Jennie Taer
Published March 18, 2024, 5:52 p.m. ET

The Supreme Court extended an order stopping Texas from allowing state authorities to arrest migrants believed to have illegally crossed into the US.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito extended the pause on Texas’ SB4 law indefinitely while the court evaluates it and ultimately decides if it can go into effect or not.

Alito’s order said it is “extended pending further order” by the court.

The law was first blocked by a federal court, which was overturned on appeal.

The Biden administration filed an appeal on March 4, bringing the case to the Supreme Court.

Governor of Texas Greg Abbott was joined by members of the Texas House of Representatives during a news conference on border security and the migrant crisis at Shelby Park on Thursday, February 8, 2024 in Eagle Pass
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday celebrated an appeals court ruling setting aside a federal judge’s decision to block a new state law allowing police to arrest illegal migrants. James Keivom
Lucia, 2nd from right, and her daughter Carla, 3, of Acapulco, Mexico, were found by a passing motorist in a mountain pass, after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border wall gather and transported them to an encampment before they are processed and transported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers on Sunday, February 3, 2024 in Jacumba, Calif.
Texas’ SB4 law would allow police to arrest any illegal border crossers. James Keivom

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill into law in December.

It authorizes local and state police to detain anyone suspected of entering the US illegally and if they are later proved to be in the country illegally they will face a choice of prison time or voluntary deportation.

“Law enforcement officers in Texas are now authorized to arrest & jail any illegal immigrants crossing the border,” Abbott previously wrote on X, adding: “Unless the Supreme Court intervenes by March 9.”

The Department of Justice and civil rights groups have filed to stop the law going into effect, saying immigration is a federal issue and should not be decided by individual states.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signs a border security bill at the border dence in Brownsville, Texas, Monday, Dec. 18, 2023
Abbott, who signed the measure, known as SB4, into law in December, insisted that his state has the right to defend itself from the migrant “invasion.” Facebook/Texas Governor
Migrants from Mexico who did not want to claim asylum crossed a gap in the U.S.-Mexico border wall on Monday, February 12, 2024 near Sasabe, Arizona.
The number of migrants living in the US expected to surge to 8 million by the end of September. James Keivom
As seen from an aerial view immigrants, many wearing mylar blankets supplied by the U.S. Border Patrol, try to stay warm after spending the night outside a processing center next to the U.S.-Mexico border on December 18, 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas
Texas has been locked in a bitter feud with the Biden Administration over the border crisis. Getty Images

Judge David Ezra agreed with the federal government’s argument in his previous decision, rejecting Abbott’s claim the migrant surge at the border amounts is an “invasion.”

“Even accepting that some small number of immigrants do traffic drugs or have cartel affiliations, Texas cannot genuinely maintain that noncitizens crossing the border are an organized military force aimed at conquest or plunder,” Ezra’s ruling read.

Texas subsequently appealed that ruling, stating: “We will not back down in our fight to protect our state — and our nation — from President Biden’s border crisis.”

The Supreme Court previously struck down a similar Arizona law in 2012, siding with the notion immigration matters are the responsibility of the federal government.