A 2023 Texas law that lets state police arrest people suspected of entering the country illegally can go into effect after a federal appeals court on Friday lifted a lower court ruling that had stopped it for years.
The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the temporary injunction without weighing in on the underlying legal questions because the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue, according to the court’s order. The Legislature passed the law, known as Senate Bill 4, in response to record illegal border crossings that the state said amounted to an invasion, and that have since subsided.
Immigration law has historically been enforced solely by the federal government. Texas lawmakers sought to challenge that precedent with the law, which quickly drew constitutional challenges from immigrants’ and civil rights groups who argued the policing of immigration is under the federal government’s purview alone.
