The Supreme Court in America has paved way for Texas to start using a tough immigration law right away. It lets state officials arrest and hold people they think entered the country illegally.
The three liberal judges on the court disagreed.
Legal problems with the law are still being worked out in a higher court, but for now Texas has won a big victory in its fight against the Biden administration’s immigration policy.
The court had stopped the law from starting, but on Tuesday it allowed the law to move forward.
The Senate Bill 4 was signed into law by the Republican Governor. In December, Greg Abbott made it a state crime to enter Texas illegally and allows state judges to order immigrants to be sent back to their home countries. The government is mainly in charge of making sure that immigration laws are followed.
The new law makes immigration advocates worry that more Latinos in Texas will be unfairly targeted and could be held in detention or deported by the state.
A judge in Austin stopped the state from following the law. The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals stopped the lower court’s decision for a short time and said the law would start on March 10 if the Supreme Court didn’t do anything. The Biden administration and others quickly made urgent requests for help.
Abbott said the court’s decision is good, but the case will still go to a higher court for review.
Karine Jean-Pierre, who speaks for the White House, said on Tuesday that “we strongly disagree” with the decision.
Please simplify this text. “SB” She said that the law will not only make Texas communities less safe, but it will also make things harder for the police and cause problems at the southern border. “SB 4 shows how Republican leaders are using the border issue for their own political gain and not focusing on real solutions. ”
The court did not give a reason for its decision.
As usual in emergency situations, the Supreme Court did not give reasons for its decision.
However, Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that the appeals court had only made a temporary “administrative” order. Barrett wanted to stop the Supreme Court from looking at these orders.
“To my knowledge, this court has never looked at a court of appeals’ decision to put a temporary hold on a case from a government agency. “I would not start a business. “When put in place, an administrative stay is meant to be a temporary pause before a decision is made about the request to delay the appeal. ”
Barrett said she thought it was not a good idea to bring a dispute to this court about whether a lower court made a mistake at an early stage.
Sonia Sotomayor, a judge, disagreed with the decision and said it will cause more problems with enforcing immigration laws.
Sotomayor wrote that the law changes the balance of power between the federal and state governments. For over 100 years, the national government has been in charge of allowing noncitizens into the country and making them leave.
Texas can immediately start punishing many people from other countries and sending them back to Mexico, Sotomayor wrote. “This law will create problems with other countries, make it harder to help people escaping danger, make it difficult for federal enforcement to work, make it harder for federal agencies to find and watch for security threats, and make noncitizens afraid to report abuse or trafficking. ”
Justice Elena Kagan said in her short disagreement that her thoughts on the case are just the beginning.
The judge said that the government handles immigration, and deciding who can come into the country and who has to leave, is its job.
The court in New Orleans will listen to arguments in the case on April 3.
It’s possible that the case will be heard again by the top court.
Barrett and Kavanaugh, who are important judges on the high court, said that the judges should not interfere with appeals courts when they use short delays to review documents.
Barrett said that if the 5th Circuit doesn’t make a decision soon, the Biden administration and the other people involved in the case might go back to the Supreme Court.
“The court might have to decide that a temporary stop has turned into a longer stop and act accordingly,” she wrote. “At this point in the case, it’s too early to make that decision. ”
Tami Goodlette, a lawyer for some of the people fighting against the law, said the court’s decision is “unfortunate” and puts people’s lives in danger for no reason.
“We are dedicated to continuing the fight to get rid of SB 4 for good, to prove that no state can take over federal immigration authority,” she said.
There has been a decrease in the number of migrants crossing the border following a surge in December.
Homeland Security officials told the media that not a lot of migrants are crossing the US-Mexico border right now, after a lot of people crossed in December.
On Monday, the US Border Patrol caught about 4,300 migrants at the southern border, according to a department official. The number of people coming to the border each day has decreased. In December, there were a lot of people coming but now there are fewer.
Migrant arrests fell by half in January compared to December, as reported by US Customs and Border Protection. In January, border officials met over 176,200 people at the US southern border, which is less than December when almost 302,000 people crossed. The CBP has not yet shared the total numbers for February.
Homeland Security officials say less people are crossing the border because the US and Mexico are talking and being stricter with the rules. But they also warn that the number of people trying to cross could go up again because there are a lot of people moving to the Western Hemisphere.
Argument about a law that many people disagree with.
The Biden government, two groups that support immigrants, and El Paso County are fighting against the law.
Lawyers for the government asked the high court to consider that the new law would seriously change the way the US and states have handled immigration for a long time.
“People may have different opinions about immigration. ” They always do. And legal representatives for the immigration groups and El Paso County expressed worry about recent immigration issues in Texas. “But California in the 1870s, Pennsylvania and Michigan in the 1930s, and Arizona in 2012 had the same thing happen. ” However, for 150 years, this Court has said that states cannot control who can enter and leave the country.
Texas Lawyer Ken Paxton, a member of the Republican party, and other state leaders told the Supreme Court that the Constitution allows Texas to protect itself from dangerous criminal groups that bring illegal drugs, weapons, and violence into the state.
Officials said that Texas is the first line of defense against violence coming from other countries. They also said that the state has to handle the deadly results of the federal government not being able or willing to protect the border.