The Texas anti-immigrant law has reached the Supreme Court. This Monday afternoon, Judge Samuel Alito issued an order that stops the entry into force of SB4, a controversial rule that allows anyone to be detained on suspicion of not having papers and initiate the procedures for their expulsion to Mexico. Alito's decision is temporary and will be in effect until March 13, when the merits of the case can be evaluated by the full Constitutional Court.
The Supreme Court's order came hours after the Department of Justice had asked the constitutional judges to intervene in the trial. The arrival at the highest judicial body in the country is a new chapter in the tug-of-war between Washington and the Government of Texas. The Fifth Circuit of Appeals on Saturday ruled in favor of an appeal filed by Greg Abbott's Administration to defend its controversial rule. A few days earlier, a district court stopped the so-called SB4 from taking effect. Now the future of this law, the harshest against illegal migrants arriving in the United States, will be decided by the Supreme Court and its conservative majority.
The Supreme Court has acted with great speed. Just this morning it was reported that the Fifth Circuit, based in New Orleans, had given the Biden Government seven days to appeal the ruling. This allowed Texas authorities to apply the law from Saturday. But the Justice Department soon went to court, arguing that Abbott's rule could “alter the status quo that has existed between the United States and the States in the context of immigration for almost 150 years.” Attorney General Merrick Garland's office believes that the Texas law has similarities to SB1070, an Arizona rule enacted in 2010 that allowed the authority to request papers everywhere. The togados considered it unconstitutional, although the most conservative judges defended that the States could carry out arrests of people in an irregular situation.
David Ezra, a federal district judge, argued last week that Abbott's law, signed in December, is unconstitutional. The magistrate assures that the norm gives state authorities powers to regulate migration that only correspond to the federal Executive. The Texas attorney's office defended the text of SB4 on Monday, arguing that it imitates federal legislation and that it has been “adopted to address the ongoing crisis at the border, which affects Texans more than anyone.” Abbott has made combating irregular immigration one of his priorities. He accompanied Donald Trump on a visit to the border on Friday and is among the Republican vice presidential candidate's options.
Judge Edith Brown Clement, nominated for the Fifth Circuit by President George W. Bush, and the well-dressed Kurt Engelhardt, who came to office thanks to Donald Trump, have agreed with Abbott. Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez, the daughter of braceros and the only Latina to have held one of the seats on the court panel, did not grant the suspension. Ramirez came to this court in December of last year after being proposed to the position by President Joe Biden.
Abbott announced last Thursday that his Government would appeal to the Fifth Circuit. But Governor Abbott already has hope in the conservative majority of the Constitutional Court. “Even from his court, this District Judge admits that this case will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court,” says the president.
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The governor signed the law into law in December during an event held on the border with Mexico, an area that has produced record numbers of irregular immigrants in 2023. SB4 makes illegal entry into Texas a crime punishable by up to six months in prison. Repeat offenders, however, are exposed to harsher sentences, which can reach two and even up to 20 years behind bars.
One of the most controversial parts of the law allows state authorities to bring undocumented people before local judges. These robes could then begin the procedures for expulsion from the State of the migrants. These would presumably be sent to Mexico, regardless of whether or not they are Mexican nationals. The Government of that country has flatly and repeatedly rejected SB4. The deportation of migrants by a State is considered unconstitutional by several instances. “The expulsion touches one of the most sensitive foreign affairs considerations of federal policy,” said Judge Ezra in the ruling that was reversed, but that now the Supreme Court seems to give oxygen.
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