WASHINGTON (CN) — Justice Samuel Alito extended the Supreme Court’s previous pause of a Texas immigration law on Tuesday, giving the justices an extra five days to decide if the state can enforce its deportation system.
The court had already extended the administrative stay on the Texas law once. That pause was set to end March 13. Now the court will have until March 18 to issue a ruling.
The short order extending the court’s deadline did not explain why the justices expected they would need additional time to issue an order on the Biden administration’s emergency application to prevent Senate Bill 4 from enforcement while the government and Texas continue to fight over the law in court.
SB 4 would make it a state crime to cross the border illegally, giving Texas law enforcement the authority to capture and deport anyone suspected of entering the country illegally. Violations of the state-issued deportation orders carry a 20-year prison sentence.
Immigration advocacy groups and El Paso County sued the Texas Department of Public Safety soon after Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the bill into law in December. The Biden administration joined them, claiming the state had infringed on federal immigration authority.
A federal judge said the law was “antithetical to the Constitution,” and enjoined the state from enforcing the law. The conservative Fifth Circuit reversed, allowing Texas to enforce SB 4. The appeals court put its ruling on hold until March 10 to allow the Supreme Court to weigh in.
The Biden administration asked the justices to keep the law on pause indefinitely, arguing enforcing SB 4 would alter the status quo on the border. The government said the law would hurt the country’s relationship with Mexico, which had not agreed to accept deportees from Texas.
“By allowing Texas to remove noncitizens to Mexico without its consent, SB4 would have significant and immediate adverse effects on the United States’ relationship with Mexico — a relationship that is critical to the federal government’s ability to effectively address immigration at the southwest border,” U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in the government’s application.
Texas claims the Biden administration has not done enough to quell the crisis at the border so the state had to take matters into its hands. Texas compares illegal immigration to an invasion, arguing that SB 4 is justified under the state war clause of the Constitution.
“The state’s injury is even sharper than usual here, moreover, because Texas is the nation’s first-line defense against transnational violence and has been forced to deal with the deadly consequences of the federal government’s inability or unwillingness to protect the border,” Aaron Nielson, Texas’ solicitor general, wrote in the state’s brief.
Texas urged the court to reject the Biden administration’s application, pointing to upcoming arguments over the case in the Fifth Circuit.
Follow @KelseyReichmann
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
