The back-and-forth between Texas and the Biden administration over immigration continues in the courts. Late Tuesday, March 26, a federal appeals court ruled the Texas law allowing state law enforcement officers to arrest and detain migrants coming over the U.S. southern border will remain on hold while legal challenges play out.
A three-judge panel voted 2-1 to keep the law — known as Senate Bill 4 (SB 4) — blocked while the court decides if the law is unconstitutional.
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, R, signed SB4 into law in December, allowing Texas law enforcement to capture and detain migrants suspected of crossing the border illegally. The law also gives judges the power to deport undocumented migrants.
In late February, U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra blocked the law before it went into effect. Ezra asserted keeping SB 4 on the books would allow each state to pass its own set of immigration laws.
“SB 4 directly challenges the federal government’s long-held power to control immigration, naturalization and removal,” Ezra said in the preliminary injunction.
Texas then appealed the decision and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said in a brief order that the law could go into effect if the Supreme Court did not step in.
In response, the high court rejected an emergency request from the Biden administration, with the justices ruling the law could go into effect while litigation played out in the lower courts.
Hours after that ruling came down, the 5th Circuit Appeals Court ruled the Texas law should remain suspended.
Oral arguments over whether to uphold the injunction are set for April 3.
