Legal ping-pong as Texas border law put back on hold

The Biden administration argues that the federal government has authority over immigration matters, not individual states.

Immigrants pick their way through the razor wire after crossing the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas. Picture: AFP

A Texas law that would allow state police to arrest and deport migrants who cross ­illegally into the US from Mexico was again placed on hold late on Tuesday, the latest in an ongoing legal back-and-forth over its fate.

The Biden administration strongly opposes the law, known as Senate Bill 4, arguing that the federal government has authority over immigration matters, not individual states.

“SB 4 will not only make communities in Texas less safe, it will also burden law enforcement, and sow chaos and confusion at our southern border,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday.

“SB 4 is just another example of Republican officials politicising the border while blocking real ­solutions.”

A federal judge last month temporarily blocked the law passed by the Republican majority in the Texas state legislature saying it “conflicts with key provisions of federal immigration law”. But a conservative-dominated appeals court said SB 4 could go into force unless the Supreme Court ruled otherwise.

The nation’s highest court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, issued a temporary stay on SB 4 earlier this month but lifted it on Tuesday, allowing it to take effect while legal challenges play out in lower courts. The three liberal judges on the court dissented. “Today, the court invites further chaos and crisis in immigration enforcement,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote. “Texas passed a law that directly regulates the entry and removal of non-citizens and explicitly instructs its state courts to disregard any ongoing federal immigration proceedings. That law up-ends the federal-state balance of power that has existed for over a ­century.”

But by Tuesday night, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals put the law back on hold. That hold, however, could be soon again reversed — allowing the law to go back into effect as arguments over it continue.

Republicans blame Joe Biden for the record flow of migrants into the US, while the White House accuses Republicans of deliberately sabotaging a bipartisan attempt to find a solution.