The Supreme Court temporarily blocked a Texas law that makes illegal entry a state crime, giving local law enforcement the ability to arrest illegal border crossers.
Justice Samuel Alito signed an order blocking Texas from enacting the law until March 13, halting a lower court’s ruling that SB 4 could take effect. The court also ordered the state to respond by March 11 to a Justice Department request for a pause.
🚨I just successfully secured an emergency stay of a district court ruling that would have blocked Texas’s new border security law known as SB 4 from taking effect. Onward. https://t.co/u19LVrIclp
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) March 4, 2024
Unfortunately, our stay was short lived. Onward, I will continue to defend Texas. https://t.co/J2YrqGD749
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) March 5, 2024
The Republican governor signed the bill into law last December, arguing the Biden administration's “deliberate inaction” forced the state to act.
“Four years ago, the United States had the fewest illegal border crossings in decades,” Abbott said at the time. “It was because of four policies put in place by the Trump Administration that led to such a low number of illegal crossings. President Biden has eliminated all of those policies and done nothing to halt illegal immigration.”
During a signing ceremony in Brownsville, Abbott said the law's goal is to "stop the tidal wave of illegal entry into Texas."
“It creates a criminal offense for illegal entry into Texas from a foreign nation for repeat offenders, that creates the events of illegal reentry with a potential prison sentence term of up to 20 years," Abbott noted. “The bill provides a mechanism to order an illegal immigrant to return to the foreign nation from which they entered."