Appeals court puts Texas immigration law back on hold

A federal appeals court late Tuesday blocked Texas from enforcing its controversial immigration law, hours after the Supreme Court ruled that the state could proceed.

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The law, known as Senate Bill 4, was delayed twice before the Supreme Court allowed it to stand as challenges wind their way through lower courts, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The bill, passed last year amid an unprecedented surge in border crossings, makes it a state crime for anyone to enter the country illegally. Noncitizens who illegally enter Texas from Mexico will face up to six months in jail, while people who illegally reenter the country could face felony charges under S.B. 4, according to The Washington Post.

Federal appeals court blocks enforcement

Update 12:12 a.m. EDT March 20: A federal appeals court late Tuesday blocked Texas from enforcing its new immigration law, hours after the Supreme Court ruled that the state could proceed, The Dallas Morning News reported.

The 2-1 ruling by a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals capped a flurry of legal wrangling on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court ruled that Texas could arrest and deport migrants on illegally entering the country, according to The Associated Press.

The panel of judges that issued Tuesday night’s order will hear arguments Wednesday morning on Texas’ request to put the law, Senate Bill 4, back into effect, CNN reported.

-- Bob D’Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Mexico will not accept return of migrants

Update 7:17 p.m. EDT March 19: In response to the Supreme Court ruling, Mexico’s government said it would not accept the return of migrants that Texas ordered to leave the U.S., The Associated Press reported.

Mexico’s Foreign Affairs ministry said “it will not accept, under any circumstances, repatriations by the state of Texas.”

-- Bob D’Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Original report: White House officials have called the law “extreme and unconstitutional.” Critics say it would disrupt more than a century of federal control over international borders, the Post reported.

The newspaper noted that the decision issued Tuesday was divided and preliminary as a lower court prepares to hear the case. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Kentanji Brown Jackson, both liberals, said the decision to allow the law to go into effect “invites further chaos and crisis in immigration enforcement,” according to the Chronicle.

“Texas passed a law that directly regulates the entry and removal of noncitizens and explicitly instructs its state courts to disregard any ongoing federal immigration proceedings,” they said. “That law upends the federal state balance of power that has existed for over a century, in which the National Government has had exclusive authority over entry and removal of noncitizens.”

The Biden administration sued to strike down the law, calling it a clear violation of federal authority and saying it would hurt international relations and create chaos around immigration law, The Associated Press reported. Texas argued that it has a right to respond to what officials have called an ongoing crisis at the southern border, according to the news agency.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton hailed the Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday as a “HUGE WIN.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the decision “will not only make communities in Texas less safe, it will also burden law enforcement, and sow chaos and confusion at our southern border.”

The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is set to hear arguments over the law on April 3, Bloomberg News reported.

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