The United States Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit in Austin on January 3 challenging Senate Bill 4’s constitutionality and broad powers that state and local police have to arrest and prosecute migrants who cross illegally over borders. The suit challenges its constitutionality.
The lawsuit alleges that SB 4 violates federal law and conflicts with a 2012 Supreme Court ruling restricting states’ ability to enforce immigration laws. SB 4 is set to go into effect in March.
Legal Issues
The Justice Department contends that Texas’ new law, which authorizes local police officers to arrest people suspected of crossing illegally, violates the Supremacy Clause in the Constitution, which states that federal laws override local ones in most instances. A lawsuit was filed in Austin against this law based on this assertion by the federal government and filed on June 18th against Texas for this act of unconstitutionality.
President Joe Biden warned Texas Governor Greg Abbott a day earlier of impending federal litigation unless he assured them that SB 4 wouldn’t be enforced, prompting this suit to seek to have it declared unconstitutional and prevent Texas from moving ahead with its implementation.
Civil rights groups and officials from border communities oppose a law set to take effect March 5, which they perceive as an attempt by GOP-controlled Texas to bypass federal immigration rules. Two immigrant advocacy organizations and El Paso County — home to an abundance of Mexican nationals — filed lawsuit against it through ACLU Texas Civil Rights Project on behalf of two immigrant-advocacy organizations and El Paso County respectively.
Impact on Immigrants
An unprecedented surge of migrants at the US-Mexico border is pitting the White House and Texas governor against each other over who will enforce immigration laws. Recently, El Paso, Harris and Travis county executives – representing almost 25 percent of Texas’s population – sent letters urging Vice President Biden to intervene and prevent state law known as SB 4 from going into effect.
The Justice Department claims that this law interferes with federal authority to control entry and removal of noncitizens, violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, and undermines US foreign policy objectives. Their lawsuit asks a court to declare it unconstitutional and stop it taking effect.
Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers are quick to defend the new law as an essential step to curb illegal border crossings. They point out statistics showing that most apprehended by US Customs and Border Protection come from Mexico while most people who enter legally from other parts of the world do so legally as well.
Enforcement
The new law gives police officers authority to arrest anyone suspected of illegally entering from Mexico without an appropriate US passport, and gives judges power to order their expulsion from the country – noncompliance could result in 20 years in prison.
The Justice Department asserts that both federal law and Supreme Court precedent establish immigration enforcement as the exclusive responsibility of the federal government, rather than individual states, including Texas. By delegating this power to local officials instead, Texas’ legislation violates both these provisions as well as its Supremacy Clause clause.
The new law has caused fear among Texas’ 40% Latino population. Civil-rights groups such as ACLU filed suit to block it; but it remains to be seen if federal officials will pursue legal action against Texas over its new law, given their ongoing litigation with Rio Grande floating barriers.
Settlement
In a lawsuit filed by the federal government, Texas lawmakers who granted local police broad powers to arrest migrants violate the constitution. According to the Department of Justice, Senate Bill 4 will interfere with immigration and border enforcement responsibilities that fall solely under their purview.
The Justice government maintains that the law allowing judges to issue deportation orders violates both the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution and longstanding Supreme Court precedent. They claim it would hinder and frustrate enforcement of immigration laws across the nation by hindering administration’s efforts to enforce them effectively.
The lawsuit includes Governor Greg Abbott, the Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security as defendants in its legal claims against SB 4 and its implementation. Furthermore, it asks the court to declare SB 4 unconstitutional and block its implementation while also prohibiting states from requiring asylum seekers to sign documents that state they agree to return home country. Veronica Escobar of El Paso joined other lawmakers in signing an opposing letter opposing this federal lawsuit.