The US Supreme Court temporarily blocked Senate Bill (SB) 4 on Monday, a strict, new Texas immigration law criminalizing various immigration offenses.
The Court’s order was in response to an administrative stay granted by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Saturday, allowing the law to be enforced. The applicants, the County of El Paso and two civil rights organizations, submitted an application to the Supreme Court to vacate the stay ordered by the Fifth Circuit on Monday.
In it, the applicants alleged that the aim of SB 4 is to regulate immigration, a power the federal government retains exclusive control over. They argued that balancing the equities at issue weighs in their favor. According to the application:
SB 4 will cause enormous harm from the first day it goes into effect, because it would sow chaos in the federal immigration system; upend the plaintiffs’ operations; and allow Texas to nullify the federal rights of thousands of noncitizens who may ultimately to entitled to remain in the United States under the laws Congress has enacted.
Ultimately, the applicants concluded that Texas “faces no comparable harm” and “offer[s] no reason the status quo must be upended right now.”
The Fifth Circuit’s order stayed a preliminary injunction issued last week by a Texas district court. In his order suspending enforcement of SB 4, Judge David Alan Ezra of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas noted that the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution preempts any state regulation of immigration. He also wrote that “to allow Texas to permanently supersede federal directives on the basis of an invasion would amount to nullification of federal law and authority – a notion that is antithetical to the Constitution and has been unequivocally rejected by federal courts since the Civil War.”
In support of the application, the ACLU of Texas, in a joint statement, said, “We have long warned that this law will separate families, lead to racial profiling across the state, and harm people across the state as Governor Abbott continues his relentless campaign against people who are immigrants.” Governor Abbott has recently asserted that Texas has a constitutional right to defend itself from an “invasion” allegedly caused by “President Biden’s lawless border policies.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed SB 4 into law in December 2023. One of its primary provisions criminalizes the illegal entry into Texas from anywhere but an official port of entry. Essentially, SB 4 grants Texas law enforcement officials the ability to enforce immigration laws, which is typically reserved for federal discretion.
