A coalition of civil rights organizations on Monday filed a lawsuit challenging a Texas law that makes illegal immigration a state crime.
The 2023 law, which allows state police to arrest individuals who cross the border illegally, had previously been blocked in lower courts. A federal appeals court lifted the ban in late April, allowing state police to detain illegal immigrants, effective later this month.
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Ahead of the pending enactment, the Texas Civil Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, and ACLU joined a lawsuit arguing that Senate Bill 4 violates the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause. Immigration law has historically been enforced solely by the federal government, and federal law should preempt state law, the groups argued. The lawsuit was filed in the District Court for the Western District of Texas against Freeman Martin, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
“[SB 4] purports to give Texas state officials the unprecedented power to arrest, detain, and deport noncitizens in the State of Texas,” the lawsuit reads. “Under this novel system, the State of Texas has created its own immigration crimes; state police arrest noncitizens for alleged violations of these crimes; state prosecutors bring charges in state courts; state judges order deportation to Mexico (no matter the country a person is from); and state officers carry out those orders. The federal government has no role in, and no control over, Texas’s scheme.”
The bill was set to take effect on May 15, after the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit lifted a hold on the law last month. Plaintiffs Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, American Gateways, and El Paso County had previously sought to block the law from implementation. In an ACLU press release, Kate Gibson Kumar of the Texas Civil Rights Project called SB 4 “not only unconstitutional, but a vile law that uses our Texas resources to harm communities across our state.”
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The Texas state legislature passed the law in response to record illegal border crossings during the Biden administration.
Attorney General Ken Paxton and other state leaders argued federal border protection wasn’t sufficient to stop the influx. Local and state law enforcement involvement was necessary to protect national sovereignty and stop what they described as an invasion, in defense of making illegal border crossing a state-level offense.
