WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court issued a belated extension to its pause on a Texas immigration law on Monday, preventing the state from prosecuting illegal border crossings as a state crime for now.
The order came after the high court initially missed its 5 p.m. deadline, allowing the law to briefly go into effect. It's unclear when the court will issue a final ruling on the case, leaving Texas and the Biden administration in limbo.
Senate Bill 4 gives Texas law enforcement authority to capture and deport anyone suspected of entering the country illegally. The controversial law has yet to be enforced because of legal challenges from immigration advocacy groups and the Biden administration.
The government asked the Supreme Court to keep the law on ice while the conservative Fifth Circuit reviews the case on appeal. The Biden administration says that doing so would maintain the 150-year-old status quo of immigration policy between the federal government and states.
“SB4 … would impose state criminal penalties on noncitizens who unlawfully enter or reenter Texas from Mexico and would require Texas courts to order the removal of those noncitizens to Mexico without Mexico’s consent and without observing the substantive or procedural requirements of federal law governing removal,” U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote.
A federal judge found SB 4 unconstitutional and blocked its enforcement. However, the Fifth Circuit reversed, giving Texas the go-ahead to enforce the law.
Texas urged the justices to reject the Biden administration’s emergency application, stating no intervention is necessary because of the Fifth Circuit’s upcoming hearing on the case.
The Lone Star State tried to shift blame to the Biden administration, touting the law as an effort to combat the border crisis.
“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 said the Biden administration was wrong to think that immigration enforcement authority lies fully with the federal government. The state said the government can’t challenge the law because it's a state statute and executive policy preferences do not have supremacy over state law.
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