Late Tuesday night, a federal appeals court blocked the Texas border enforcement law just hours after the US Supreme Court ruled it was clear to come into effect.
The law, a Republican-backed bill that aims to grant local officials the authority to arrest illegal immigrants for crossing the border, is designed as a work-around for Texas to confront the large migration surge at the border without relying on the Biden administration. Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) said the law is necessary due to Biden’s insufficient border enforcement practices, particularly its failure to enforce federal laws regarding illegal entries (and re-entries).
The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, was informed by Texas Attorney General that the state was granting its border patrol more authority in November 2023.
Mayorkas was impeached by the House of Representatives in February for failure to perform the duties for which he was appointed. Senate Democrats are set to discard the articles quickly, according to lawmakers spoken to by Fox News.
A Republican-backed Texas law that will allow state law enforcement authorities to arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the US-Mexico border blocked again by an appeals court, hours after the Supreme Court cleared the way for it to go into effect https://t.co/iTuJZc8jIu
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 20, 2024
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On March 19th, the Supreme Court refused to block Texas’ law, known as SB 4, which the Biden administration had requested they do on the grounds that it violates the Constititon by interfering with the federal government’s powers to control immigration. The Biden administration had sued in January to stop it from taking effect on March 5th. The three liberal justices on the Court were of the dissenting opinion, arguing the federal government should not give credence to the law.
That evening, the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals used its power to block enforcement of the law by resurrecting an order from a federal judge.
As of Wednesday, the law remained blocked. In disagreement with the 5th Circuit Court’s decision, Texas Solicitor General Aaron Nielson said: “There’s a real crisis going on here … Texas has decided that we are at the epicenter of this crisis. We are on the front line, and we are going to do something about it.”
Shane Devine is a writer covering politics, economics, and culture for Valuetainment. Follow Shane on X (Twitter).
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