The legal games being played with Texas’ immigration law are going to give us the political equivalent of CTE. This duel is going back and forth with no end in sight. The Supreme Court extended the injunction on SB4 on Monday, which permits police to arrest, detain, and deport illegal aliens. In essence, it makes state law what is already federal law. Yesterday, in a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court permitted Texas to enforce SB4—sort of [emphasis mine]:
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Tuesday afternoon that Texas law enforcement officials have the legal authority to arrest, detain and deport illegal immigrants. The ruling, which is an injunction, allows Texas to enforce SB 4 -- a local law passed in the Lone Star State -- until the case receives a ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
That’s the key sentence right there because hours after the Supreme Court ruling, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decided to block the law again (via WaPo):
A federal appeals court has again blocked a law that makes it a state crime for migrants to illegally cross the border, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority allowed the law to take effect while challenges to it continue through the court system.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit blocked enforcement of the law, known as S.B. 4, ahead of oral arguments scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Two justices in the majority had said the Supreme Court may again consider intervening after a lower court weighs the merits of the case. Their statement appeared to have an immediate effect, as the lower court quickly scheduled a hearing and later moved to block the law from implementation.
The law makes it a state crime for migrants to illegally cross the border and allows Texas officials to deport undocumented individuals, though Mexico said Tuesday that it would not accept anyone sent back by the state and condemned the law as “encouraging the separation of families, discrimination and racial profiling that violate the human rights of the migrant community.”
When the Biden Justice Department learned of this legislation, it threatened to sue the Lone Star State. The department had already gone to war with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott over his floating barricade on the Rio Grande. We need to face the reality that we’re never going to regain operational control of the border until we elect a new president.