Texas’ Sweeping Immigration Law: What to Know and Where It Stands
A law that would allow state and local law enforcement officers to apprehend and expel unauthorized migrants is enmeshed in a legal and political firestorm.
J. David Goodman and
Reporting from the Texas border cities of Eagle Pass and Brownsville
A sweeping new Texas law that would empower state and local police officers to arrest migrants who cross into the state from Mexico without authorization faces an uncertain future.
The U.S. Supreme Court on March 19 briefly cleared the way for implementation of the law, which the Biden administration has challenged as an unconstitutional infringement on the federal government’s power to set and enforce immigration law.
But hours later, a federal appeals court put the law on hold once again, restoring an injunction issued by a judge in Austin.
On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the appeals court denied an effort by Texas to pause the injunction — leaving the block in place while the appeals process moves forward. The court is set to hear a formal appeal of the injunction on April 3.
Critics say the law could lead to the detention of people hundreds of miles from the border, if police officers suspect that they are in the country illegally. It would certainly allow Texas to expand the border security measures that it has put in place on private land along the border, including barriers of razor wire, National Guard troops and a buoy barrier in the Rio Grande.
The actual case over who ultimately has jurisdiction will continue to play out in the courts, with far-reaching implications for immigration enforcement in the United States.
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