Federal appeals court reinstates Texas immigration law News
Federal appeals court reinstates Texas immigration law

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for Fifth Circuit [official website] on Thursday ruled [order, PDF] that Texas can enforce a 2015 state law that criminalizes the harboring of illegal immigrants. Texas officials had claimed the law, known as House Bill 11 [materials], was primarily aimed at human traffickers and smugglers, but its critics were concerned that it would also target legal aid organizations and homeless shelters that housed and helped undocumented immigrants. The US District Court for the Western District of Texas [official website] granted [order, PDF] a preliminary injunction in April, stopping the law from going into effect. The Fifth Circuit reversed the injunction and dismissed the challenge because the plaintiffs—two landlords and two social service providers—lack standing:

In sum, plaintiffs cannot demonstrate a credible threat of prosecution. On the state of this record, they have not hampered authorities from finding any of the illegal aliens they rent to or serve, nor have they taken steps to help the aliens evade “detection” by the authorities. Because there is no reasonable interpretation by which merely renting housing or providing social services to an illegal alien constitutes “harboring … that person from detection,” we REVERSE the injunction and RENDER a judgment of dismissal for want of jurisdiction.

In the ruling, the court noted that the direct of the Texas Department of Public Safety testified that his agency would not investigate or enforce this law against social services agencies or landlords.

The reinstatement of this law comes during a large overhaul of the country’s approach to immigration. Earlier this week the Trump administration issued new guidance [JURIST report] informing immigration enforcement measures. In late January President Donald Trump signed an executive order [JURIST op-ed] to restrict travel to the US from certain countries and putting in place a temporary halt on refugees entering the US. Earlier this month the Ninth Circuit upheld [JURIST report] a district court decision to block enforcement of the executive order nationwide. The proceedings regarding the order have been temporarily stopped [JURIST report], as President Donald Trump has announced that he will sign a new order on the issue soon.

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