Appeals court paves way for Texas immigration law to go into effect if Supreme Court doesn’t act

[Valin]

KERA News

Julián Aguilar | The Texas Newsroom
Published March 4, 2024

A Texas law that would allow local police to arrest people suspected of being in the country illegally could go into effect later this week after a weekend ruling by a federal appeals court.

The law, Senate Bill 4, was passed late last year by the Texas Legislature and was initially scheduled to go into effect Tuesday, March 5. But it was temporarily blocked Thursday by U.S. District Judge David Ezra, who ruled the law is likely unconstitutional because the federal government has jurisdiction over immigration matters.

The state of Texas immediately appealed the ruling to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which over the weekend set aside Ezra’s decision, the New York Times reported Sunday. The appeals court put its own ruling on hold for a week to allow the Biden administration to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

If the high court doesn’t intervene, the law could go into effect Saturday, March 9 pending a final resolution in the courts.

In addition to the local arrest powers it grants officers, Senate Bill 4 allows local judges to order a migrant to return to Mexico via a port of entry.

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H/T The Right Scoop

Greg Abbott

@GregAbbott_TX

 

BREAKING HUGE NEWS Federal appeals court allows Texas immigration law to take effect. Law enforcement officers in Texas are now authorized to arrest & jail any illegal immigrants crossing the border. https://cnn.com/2024/03/03/politics/texas-immigration-law-appeals-court/index.html

 

10:40 AM · Mar 4, 2024

 

[Valin]

DOJ seeks Supreme Court appeal as Abbott says Texas ‘now authorized’ to arrest illegal immigrants
Kaelan Deese
March 4, 2024

Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) said Monday that state authorities are “now authorized” to arrest illegal immigrants just moments before President Joe Biden‘s Justice Department petitioned the Supreme Court to undo an appeals court ruling allowing 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, two days after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s block on the state’s law criminalizing illegal border crossings.

The appeals court issued had a temporary stay on Saturday that would allow Texas’s Senate Bill 4 to take effect on March 9 if the Supreme Court does not intervene, and the Biden administration on Monday afternoon filed an emergency petition to stay the 5th Circuit’s decision by Saturday at midnight.

The Biden administration argued it is likely to succeed on the merits if the high court granted the issue for certiorari, or agreed to hear the case, and contended that lower courts have found the “United States would suffer irreparable harm if SB 4 goes into effect,” according to its Supreme Court petition.

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[Geee]

Supreme Court prevents Texas from implementing sweeping immigration law

The Supreme Court has barred Texas from implementing a state law that was set to take effect Monday and would have allowed state police to arrest immigrants on state, not federal charges, if they illegally enter the United States from Mexico.

The court ruled Monday evening to continue a temporary hold that was initially issued on March 4, two weeks before the law was set to begin.

 

“Upon further consideration of the application of counsel for the applicants, the response, and the reply filed thereto, it is ordered that the stay issued on March 4, 2024, is hereby extended pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court,” Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Samuel A. Alito, Jr., wrote in the order.

S.B. 4 was signed into law in December 2023 and allows state police to arrest people on immigration charges, an authority that until now was only available to federal police because immigration violations are dictated by federal law, not state law.

It also allows local judges to order someone in custody to be deported outside the United States.

[Geee]

DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS: Supreme Court Allows Texas To Arrest Illegals

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that it will allow Texas to enforce for now a contentious new law that gives local police the power to arrest migrants.

The conservative-majority court, with three liberal justices dissenting, rejected an emergency request by the Biden administration, which said states have no authority to legislate on immigration, an issue the federal government has sole authority over.

That means the law can go into effect while litigation continues in lower courts. It could still be blocked at a later date.

[Geee]

TX Gov. Abbott Says Buoys Will Stay In River Following Supreme Court Ruling

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has vowed to leave controversial buoys in the Rio Grande after the Supreme Court blocked a new state law targeting suspected illegal migrants from taking effect on Monday.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Abbott said the buoys would stay in the river, the building of a wall would continue and the Texas National Guard would erect razor wire barriers along the Texas-Mexico border.

Tensions have surged between Texan and federal authorities over how to respond to a surge in irregular migration across the southern border in recent months.

On January 22 the Supreme Court ruled federal agents could remove razor wire placed along the border on Abbott’s orders. This sparked a furious response from Abbott who claimed his state was being subject to an “invasion” and invoked “Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and protect itself.”

[Valin]

What the Court Did On Immigration [Updated]

John Hinderaker

 March 20, 2024

A showdown is coming on the conflict between the Biden administration, which is determined to negate federal immigration law, and the State of Texas, which bears the brunt of Biden’s open border policy and is determined to vindicate our immigration laws and protect its own citizens. The case is pending in the Fifth Circuit, but a shot across the bow was fired yesterday in the Supreme Court.

This is the procedural status: A federal judge in Texas held that Texas’s law, SB 4, unconstitutionally conflicts with federal law, and he enjoined enforcement of SB 4. Texas appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which entered an “administrative stay” of the trial court’s order enjoining Texas. Under that temporary stay, Texas can continue enforcing its law, for the time being, while the case is being argued.

The Biden administration went to the Supreme Court, asking for an emergency order vacating the Fifth Circuit’s administrative stay, i.e., barring Texas from enforcing its law. Yesterday, the Supreme Court, evidently on a 6-3 vote, denied Biden’s emergency application. So, at least for the moment, Texas’s border efforts will continue.

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The Court’s order and opinions are here. Jess Bravin and Elizabeth Findell write about the administration’s emergency motion and the overall progress of the case at the Wall Street Journal, here.

UPDATE: A panel of the Fifth Circuit ruled late last night, 2-1, that Texas’s enforcement of its law should be stayed for the time being. This is one more step in the process, and the Fifth Circuit is hearing arguments on the motion for a stay pending appeal this morning. So this issue could continue to go back and forth, and it may be back in the Supreme Court before long.

Which returns us to the point that the chief significance of yesterday’s Supreme Court order is that the liberal wing has come out strongly on the merits of the case, while the six-justice majority is staying quiet on the merits, for the time being.