Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) announced Monday that state authorities are “now authorized” to arrest illegal immigrants just days after an appeals court reversed a lower court’s block on the state’s law criminalizing illegal border crossings.
“Law enforcement officers in Texas are now authorized to arrest & jail any illegal immigrants crossing the border,” Abbott wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary stay on Saturday that would allow Texas’s Senate Bill 4 to take effect on March 9 if the Supreme Court does intervene.
The 5th Circuit’s reversal came just days after U.S. District Court Judge David Alan Ezra blocked SB 4 from going into effect. Ezra, a Reagan appointee, said the law “threatens the fundamental notion that the United States must regulate immigration with one voice.”
The 5th Circuit also said it will schedule oral arguments on its next available date, though no date has yet to be announced. The federal government could seek to have the Supreme Court weigh in, as it was given seven days from Saturday to make its appeal to the nine justices.
University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck posted to X on Sunday, saying the appeals court’s decision is “effectively *forcing*” the Supreme Court to rule by Saturday whether to allow Texas’s policy to go into effect.”
Abbott signed SB 4 in December, marking one of several major attempts by the Lone Star State to deter immigrants from crossing the Rio Grande after years of historic numbers of immigrants arriving at the Texas-Mexico border.
The law makes illegally crossing the border a Class B misdemeanor, which can result in a sentence of six months in jail for those convicted. Repeat offenders could face a second-degree felony with a punishment of two to 20 years in prison.
SB 4 also requires state judges to order immigrants returned to Mexico if they are convicted, leaving local law enforcement responsible for transporting immigrants back to the border. A judge could drop the charges if an immigrant agrees to return to Mexico without contesting the process.
The lawsuit against SB 4 stems from the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Texas, along with support from the Texas Civil Rights Project. One month after the groups filed their lawsuit in December, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Texas, which have since been combined.
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Legal proceedings come as both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump visited the border last week in separate bids to promote their plans to handle the migrant crisis, with the pair likely to face off in the November general election.
Trump maintains that he will revert the nation’s immigration policies to how they were before Biden became president and has argued that the Department of Homeland Security under Biden is seeking to incentivize illegal immigration.