The Supreme Court of the United States made a momentous decision this Monday by blocking the entry into force of a controversial Texas law, SB 88-4, which would allow police authorities to detain and expel migrants suspected of entering the country irregularly.
The order, issued by conservative judge Samuel Alito, responds to an emergency request presented by President Joe Biden’s government, the Efe news agency published.
SB 88-4, passed by the Texas Legislature last year, is one of the most drastic anti-immigrant measures in US history.
However, last week a federal magistrate in Texas had postponed the entry into force of the law after a lawsuit filed by several organizations and El Paso County, arguing that the measure is unconstitutional by interfering with the immigration powers of the federal government.
Despite the federal magistrate’s ruling, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the decision, taking the legal battle to the highest court in the country. Now, Samuel Alito gave Supreme Court justices time until March 13 to deliberate on the next steps in this legal dispute between Texas and the Joe Biden administration.
Entering Texas could be a crime
SB 88-4 criminalizes irregular entry into the state from a foreign nation, making it a misdemeanor. In addition, it allows state justice to order the expulsion of people without legal process and authorizes police officers to arrest individuals suspected of entering the country through non-regular routes, with the discretion to expel them to Mexico.
In the emergency filing, United States Attorney Elizabeth Prelogar argued that the law is “flatly inconsistent” with the precedent of the highest court’s rulings, while Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton lamented the temporary block. but he affirmed that he will continue defending the law, Efe indicated.
The plaintiffs, led by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, expressed concern about the discriminatory and racial impact the law could have in the state, especially against Hispanics. They urged the Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court’s stay and uphold the decision preventing the law from taking effect.
Joe Biden “has expelled” more migrants than Donald Trump
In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security of the United States, stated that during the last three years the Joe Biden administration has “returned or expelled” more irregular migrants than during the four years of the previous administration of Donald Trump (2017-2021).
Mayorkas noted that since last May, the United States has expelled “more people than in any year since 2015.” However, the magnitude of the migration crisis on the southern border has resulted in the arrival of more than 2.2 million migrants in 2023, according to the EFE news agency.
A recent survey of Wall Street Journal reveals that a growing number of Americans are focusing their attention on immigration, an issue that could pose a challenge to President Biden’s re-election. About 20% of respondents cited the arrival of undocumented foreigners as the most important issue for their vote in this year’s presidential election, followed by the economy.
Last Thursday, both Joe Biden and Donald Trump, his possible rival in the November elections, visited the southern border of the United States, highlighting migration as a central issue of their respective campaigns.
Keep reading:
• Mayorkas assured that Joe Biden’s government has expelled more migrants than Donald Trump’s
• Number of detainees in US immigration jails continues to increase: almost 40,000 in custody
• Migrants on the Mexico border denounce that Texas increased its barbed fence to three meters