The Supreme Court last Tuesday upheld a Texas law allowing local law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants entering the US.
This is a massive victory for Governor Greg Abbott (R), whose attempts to handle the border crisis have been repeatedly stymied by the Biden Administration.
The Texas law (SB4), passed late last year, allows state and local officials to arrest and impose criminal penalties on individuals entering the country illegally and allows state judges to order deportation. According to Abbott, the law was a necessity due to the Biden Administration’s abject failure to enforce federal laws at the border.
Texas Attorney Genearl Ken Paxton described the ruling as a “huge win” and confirmed the law “is now in effect.”
The Supreme Court’s ruling also rejects a request from the Justice Department, which insists SB4 is a violation of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause. The Supremacy Clause states that federal law takes precedence over state law in most cases.
Writing on behalf of the Biden Administration, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar described the Texas law as “flatly inconsistent” with prior Supreme Court rulings. “Those decisions recognize that the authority to admit and remove noncitizens is a core responsibility of the national government, and that where Congress has enacted a law addressing those issues, state law is preempted.”
The three Democrat-appointed justices who opposed the ruling (Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson) expressed similar opinions.
“The Court gives a green light to a law that will upend the longstanding federal-state balance of power and sow chaos,” wrote Justice Sotomayor, “when the only court to consider the law concluded that it is likely unconstitutional.”
Sotomayor is referring to US District Judge David Ezra, who in February issued a ruling describing SB4 as unconstitutional.
Allowing Texas officials to arrest illegal immigrants “amounts to nullification of federal law and authority,” wrote Ezra. SB4 presents a “notion that is antithetical to the Constitution and has been unequivocally rejected by federal courts since the Civil War.”
His ruling also dismissed the Lone Star State’s argument that it was facing invasion and thus should be protected by the federal government as stated in Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution. The Louisiana-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked Ezra’s decision, upholding SB4 before the case moved to the Supreme Court.
Author’s Note: Illegal immigration is a massive problem that has only gotten worse during the Biden Administration. Polls suggest up to 60% of Americans consider it a “very serious” problem and we can expect immigration policy to be a hot topic as we move closer to the next election.
Source:
US Supreme Court Allows Texas to Enforce Law Against Illegal Immigration