A federal appeals court ruled on Saturday that a Texas border security law is allowed to go into effect pending an appeal filed by the federal government.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted a temporary stay of a lower court’s ruling on Texas SB 4, which makes unlawful entry into the state a crime and allows state law enforcement officers to apprehend those suspected of violating the law.
SB 4 was originally set to become law on Tuesday, but the Fifth Circuit’s ruling will put the law on hold until March 9 unless the federal government chooses to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, per The Texas Tribune.
The Fifth Circuit’s ruling comes shortly after U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra paused the law, writing in his ruling that the bill could “open the door to each state passing its own version of immigration laws,” according to CNN.
Ezra’s ruling was quickly appealed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who claimed in a press release that the state has a “clear right to defend itself from the drug smugglers, human traffickers, cartels, and legions of illegal aliens crossing into our State as a consequence of the Biden Administration’s deliberate policy choices.”
While it is currently unclear whether the Biden administration will file an appeal with SCOTUS, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he expects the high court to rule on the case.
“Texas has the right to defend itself because of President Biden’s ongoing failure to fulfill his duty to protect our state from the invasion at our southern border. Even from the bench, this District Judge acknowledged that this case will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court,” said Abbott in a press release after Ezra’s ruling.
The ongoing litigation revolves around a conjoined lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) and the American Civil Liberties Union, which claims the law is unconstitutional due to the state overstepping immigration law.
The lawsuit filed by the DOJ claims that SB 4 would “intrude on the federal government’s exclusive authority to regulate the entry and removal of noncitizens, frustrate the United States’ immigration operations and proceedings, and interfere with U.S. foreign relations.”
Texas and the federal government have been involved in multiple other lawsuits due to the ongoing unlawful migration crisis at the southern border, with the two sides also wrapped up in litigation about a floating barrier on the Rio Grande and concertina wire along the border.
