FLASH: Just hours after the Supreme Court allowed a Texas law to take effect that gave state law enforcement the authority to arrest people they suspect of entering the country illegally, a federal appeals court issued an order that puts it on hold.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals order came late Tuesday evening. The appeals panel issued a stay ahead of oral arguments before the court Wednesday, reported Lauren Irwin of The Hill.
The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that it will allow Texas to enforce for now a new law that gives local police the power to arrest illegal aliens for the crime of being in the country illegally.
However, as Adam Liptak of the New York Times observed, the Supreme Court only temporarily sided with Texas in the increasingly bitter fight with the Biden administration over immigration policy, allowing the expansive state law to go into effect that makes it a crime for aliens to enter Texas without authorization.
As is typical when the court acts on emergency applications, its order gave no reasons, noted Mr. Liptak. But Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, filed a concurring opinion that said an appeals court must act before the Supreme Court intervenes.
The conservative-majority court’s action, with three liberal justices dissenting, was in response to 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.
Mr. Liptak noted that the court’s order addressed just one aspect of the clashes between the White House and Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, who has embarked on a multibillion-dollar campaign to deter migrants, including by installing razor wire along the banks of the Rio Grande and a barrier of buoys in the river.
The law in Texas, sometimes called S.B. 4, empowers state courts to order the deportation of migrants who enter the state without authorization and gives local law enforcement the authority to arrest those who cross the southern border unlawfully. The administration, civil rights groups and El Paso County challenged the law, saying it interfered with the federal government’s power to set immigration policy and to conduct foreign affairs.
The order means the law can go into effect while litigation continues in lower courts. It could still be blocked at a later date, reported Lawrence Hurley of NBC News.
The three liberal justices dissented.
“Today, the court invites further chaos and crisis in immigration enforcement,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote. “Texas passed a law that directly regulates the entry and removal of noncitizens and explicitly instructs its state courts to disregard any ongoing federal immigration proceedings. That law upends the federal-state balance of power that has existed for over a century, in which the national government has had exclusive authority over entry and removal of noncitizens.”
In January, addressing another emergency application from the Biden administration, the Supreme Court allowed federal officials to cut or remove parts of a razor-wire barrier along the Mexican border that Texas had erected to keep migrants from crossing into the state.
But that ruling, by a 5-to-4 vote, was only an interim victory for the administration, concluded Mr. Liptak.
Texas
Governor Gregg Abbott
Invasion declaration
Biden adminsitration
Supreme Court
Eagle Pass Texas
razor wire fencing
border patrol agents
Rep. Chip Roy
nullification
U.S. Constitution
Article IV, Section 4
Texas Constitution
SB 4
5th Circuit Court of Appeals