A Texas law that would deputize state and local police to question and arrest people they suspect of being in the country illegally was blocked once again. The law would also authorize local judges to order immigrants returned to the border.
The three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion late Thursday that kept the law, Senate Bill 4, from going into effect.
“For nearly 150 years, the Supreme Court has recognized that the power to control immigration — the entry, admission, and removal of aliens — is exclusively a federal power,” the ruling said.
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The ruling is a flashpoint in a two-year legal drama that began when Texas enacted the law in 2023, testing the limits of a state’s immigration enforcement powers.
The Biden administration immediately sued. The law was blocked by a federal judge in Austin, keeping it on hold as the Fifth Circuit weighed whether to allow the law to go into effect.
During that time, Donald Trump was re-elected as president. His administration dropped the lawsuit, seeking to work with Texas on immigration enforcement. But immigrant rights groups and El Paso County kept the lawsuit going.
For the plaintiffs, the ruling from the conservative Fifth Circuit was a surprise given the climate of immigration politics. The Fifth Circuit has handed down some of the most conservative rulings that have been appealed to the Supreme Court in recent years on issues like voting rights, abortion, and immigration.
“We’re very surprised and glad that the Fifth Circuit has long recognized what has long been a longstanding legal principle,” said El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez.
El Paso County argued the law, known as SB4, would be a burden on local governments.
“We would have had to divert law enforcement resources to handling this. How and what were we going to do to figure out who is here on legal status or not? Where were we going to put these individuals if they became arrested?” Sanchez said. “Does this bring racial profiling concerns or other civil rights concerns once these individuals are detained by our local law enforcement?”
El Paso County is one of the plaintiffs in the suit, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and the Texas Civil Rights project on behalf of El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and Austin-based American Gateways.
See here for the previous update – the hearing for this was last April, so this has been a typically slow process – and here for a copy of the opinion. Of the two judges that ruled for the plaintiffs, one is a George W. Bush appointee and the other is a Biden appointee, so at least this wasn’t the result of an unexpected 2-1 Democrat-appointed panel. That may matter if there’s an en banc appeal – Ken Paxton has already said he will appeal – and who knows, it may even matter when this finally gets to SCOTUS. I’m not holding my breath on that one, but a win is a win so let’s celebrate it for now. Here’s the ACLU’s press release, and Reform Austin has more.