The Us Appeals Court Blocked Texas From Arresting and Deporting Immigrants.

Hours after the Supreme Court gave Texas state officials permission to jail and prosecute migrants, suspected of illegally crossing the U.S Southern border, an Appeals Court late on Tuesday 19th March blocked the state from enforcing the controversial immigration law known as SB4.

The decision on Tuesday by the 5th U.S circuit court of Appeals came weeks after a panel on the same Court cleared the way for Texas to enforce the controversial law by putting a pause on a lower judge’s injunction, arguing that the Federal government has authority over immigration matters, rather than individual States. The lower court ruling was suspended and SB4 termed to be unconstitutional.

The order reinstated a ruling from U.S District court Judge David Ezra, who concluded in late February that SB4 conflicted with federal immigration laws and the Constitution.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Supreme Court denied a request from the Justice Department to void the initial 5th Circuit order that had paused Ezra’s ruling. The high court allowed SB4 to take effect for several hours, though it’s unclear whether Texas arrested any migrants under the law during that short time span.

Ezra’s order blocking SB4 will stay in place until the 5th Circuit rules on Texas’ request to allow the law to be enforced while the appeals court considers its legality. A virtual hearing on that question is scheduled for later this week.

The Texas legislature last year passed the law, SB4 criminalizes unauthorized migration at the state level, making the act of entering the U.S outside of a port of entry ‘already a Federal offence’ into a state crime. It also creates a state felony charge for illegal reentry.

SB4 empowers law enforcement officials in Texas, at the state and local level, to detain and prosecute migrants on these new criminal charges. It also grants state judges the power to require migrants to return to Mexico as an alternative to prosecution.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has positioned himself as the leading state critic of President Joe Biden’s border policies, has portrayed SB4 as a necessary measure to discourage migrants from crossing the Rio Grande, arguing the Federal government has not done enough to deter illegal immigration.

Over the past three years, Texas has mounted the most aggressive state effort yet to challenge the federal government’s power over immigration policy, busing thousands of migrants to other democratic-led cities, assembling razor wire and buoys along stretches of the border to deter migrant crossings and filing multiple lawsuits against federal immigration programs.