Appeals court extends block on Texas migrant arrests

A federal appeals court issued a ruling late Tuesday that extends the block on a Texas immigration law that authorizes local law enforcement to arrest those suspected of entering the country illegally.

The panel of three justices from the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to issue the pause on Senate Bill 4. The appeals court’s decision continues the months-long legal saga surrounding the legislation, which made it all the way all the Supreme Court before the appeals court halted its enforcement last week.

“Texas does not demonstrate why it would be entitled to vacatur of the preliminary injunction,” the court said in its opinion. “Constitutional text, structure, and history provide strong evidence that federal statutes addressing matters such as noncitizen entry and removal are still supreme even when the State War Clause has been triggered.”

The statute criminalizes the entry into the Lone Star State outside of a port of entry, making it punishable by up to six months in jail, or, with subsequent crossings, a maximum of 20 years.

Judge Andrew Oldham, the lone dissenter in the overnight ruling, argued Texas is “is supposed to retain at least some of its sovereignty” in the federal system.

“And its people are supposed to be able to use that sovereignty to elect representatives and send them to Austin to debate and enact laws that respond to the exigencies that Texans experience and that Texans want addressed,” Oldham stated in his dissent.

Last week, the law went into effect for a short period of time following a Supreme Court decision.

The Biden administration urged the justices to block the law, which was passed last year by the state’s GOP-controlled Legislature and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R), arguing that it was an “unprecedented intrusion into federal immigration enforcement.”

In defending the law, Texas officials have argued that the state has a constitutional right to defend itself, asserting the administration was unwilling or unable to defend the border.

During the brief time it was in effect, no arrests were reported, per The Associated Press.

Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, a plaintiff in the case, called the latest ruling “a major win for immigrants’ rights and will prevent the law from being enforced until the court rules whether the law is unconstitutional,” in an emailed release.

Another plaintiff, immigrant rights group American Gateways, told The Hill in an emailed statement that it is “relieved that the Court has wisely blocked this hateful, anti-immigrant law from taking effect.”

“SB4 does nothing to make our communities safer,” the group added.

The Hill has reached out to Abbott, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Texas Department of Public Safety for comment, as well as others involved in the case.

Updated March 27 at 10 a.m. EDT