Last week a federal district judge ruled that a Texas law scheduled to go into effect on March 5 is unconstitutional and it violates prior Supreme Court rulings that put the federal government in charge of immigration laws and restrictions.
Senate Bill 4 was halted by U.S. District Judge David Ezra. When the ruling was announced, Governor Greg Abbott said the state would appeal. Texas did that to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. One day after Judge Ezra’s ruling was released, the appeals court immediately paused the district court’s ruling.
The new state law allows Texas police to arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the Texas border with Mexico.
The pause gives Texas seven days to appeal to the Supreme Court. If SCOTUS does not intervene, the new law will go into effect on Saturday, though the legal battle continues. The appeals court also said it will schedule oral arguments on its next available date. That date has not been announced.
Judge Ezra said that Senate Bill 4 “threatens the fundamental notion that the United States must regulate immigration with one voice.” In a perfect world, that would be so. But there is a president in the White House who deliberately created a humanitarian and national security catastrophe with an open southern border. Texas has to do what the president will not do.
Governor Abbott signed SB 4 in December. Illegal border crossings will be a Class B misdemeanor with a punishment of six months in jail possible. Repeat offenders will face second-degree felony charges with punishment of 2 – 20 years in prison.
The law requires state judges to return illegal aliens to Mexico. If they are convicted, local law enforcement would be responsible for transporting illegal aliens to the border. If the illegal alien agrees to return to Mexico, the charges may be dropped by the judge.
This battle over SB 4 has been going on since the governor signed it.
In December, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas and the Texas Civil Rights Project sued Texas on behalf of El Paso County and two immigrant rights organizations — El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and Austin-based American Gateways — over the new state law. The following month, the U.S. Department of Justice filed its lawsuit against Texas. The lawsuits have since been combined.
The court cases are an inconvenient reality in this election year for Biden. The Biden border crisis is so bad that Democrats and their cohorts in the media can no longer ignore it. Some Democrats join with Republicans in demanding that the border be secured.
Joe Biden was shamed into making a trip to the border last week. He went to Brownsville, though, which is an area where Governor Abbott’s efforts to secure the border have been successful. The flow of illegal aliens at that point has slowed to a trickle. Donald Trump went to Eagle Pass the same day. Eagle Pass is also doing well right now, thanks to Abbott’s determination to stop the flood of illegals entering Texas every day. If Biden wants to see chaos at the southern border, (he doesn’t), he would go to Arizona or southern California.
Illegal immigration moves to where the best opportunities are along the southern border. Right now those places are Arizona and southern California. Not to be outdone by Trump and Biden, Democrat California Governor Newsom went to the border. His shadow campaign remains alive and well in case Joe Biden doesn’t make it to accept his party’s nomination.
For now, Texas is waiting to see if SCOTUS will take up the lawsuit. The Biden administration continues to sue Texas as the state tries to secure its border. Biden is derelict in his top responsibility – keeping the borders secure and the homeland safe. A country without secure borders is not a sovereign country.
Obviously this is the case unless the Supreme Court intervenes by March 9.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) March 4, 2024