The United States Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the state of Texas can enforce a law that allows state authorities to arrest suspected illegal immigrants. In a 6-3 vote amid six conservative justices and three liberal justices, the high court decided to reject the Biden administration’s request to place the Texas law on hold while lower courts rule on the issue.
SCOTUS Rejects Biden Admin’s Emergency Appeal, Says Texas Can Enforce Immigration Law https://t.co/Avs9VPiPEQ pic.twitter.com/9yhRuxApJK
— Daily Wire News (@DailyWireNews) March 19, 2024
The ruling, which is the latest development in the battle between Texas and the Biden administration, follows the higher court’s extension of an administrative stay on Texas’ immigration law. Issued on Monday, the decision indefinitely blocked Senate Bill 4, which allows state officials to arrest and jail suspected illegal immigrants and grants judges the authority to order deportations, until it makes a decision on the Biden admin’s emergency appeal.
The legislation, signed into law by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in December, has been through various legal battles, as the Biden administration fights it over a belief that it interferes with federal immigration law.
The Biden administration’s lawsuit against Texas over the law was combined with a lawsuit by the ACLU, which argued that the law was discriminatory and would target minorities. According to the Department of Justice, the law “impedes the federal government’s ability to enforce entry and removal provisions of federal law and interferes with its conduct of foreign relations.”
Proponents of the law, however, argue that the state has a constitutional right to protect itself from cartels who traffick drugs and people across the southern border and commit other violent crimes.
After Justice Samuel Alito’s decision on Monday, in which he placed a stay on the law “pending further order” from the court, Abbott said that the state’s effort to arrest illegal immigrants for violations of law would continue.
“SCOTUS temporarily halted enforcement of SB 4 but Texas is still using its authority to arrest illegal immigrants for criminal trespass and other violations of law. We continue building the wall, use [National Guard] to erect razor wire barriers to repel migrants & buoys remain in river,” he stated.
