The White House on Tuesday slammed the U.S. Supreme Court for allowing enforcement of a Texas immigration law it called “harmful and unconstitutional.”
The law, Senate Bill 4 (SB4), authorizes state authorities to arrest, process, and imprison people suspected of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, which has long been withheld by federal authorities. It violates the role of the person.
“We fundamentally disagree with the Supreme Court’s order allowing enforcement of Texas’ harmful and unconstitutional law,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. SB4 will not only make Texas communities less safe, it will also burden law enforcement and create chaos and confusion at our southern border. ”
In court, the right-wing majority did not explain why it was allowing the Texas law to take effect. In a dissenting opinion, liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson said their right-wing colleagues had led to “further confusion and crisis in immigration enforcement.”
“Texas has passed a law that directly regulates the entry and removal of noncitizens and explicitly directs state courts to ignore ongoing federal immigration proceedings.” be against, written by Sotomayor. “This law upends the balance of federal and state power that has existed for more than a century, in which the national government had exclusive authority over the entry and removal of noncitizens.”
Sotomayor emphasized the importance of the decision, saying that the lower court found that the Texas law “nullifies federal law and federal authority, an unconstitutional concept that has been unequivocally rejected by federal courts since the Civil War.” He declared that it corresponds to ‘a concept that ”
Elena Kagan, the third liberal on the court, issued her own brief dissent, halting the Biden administration’s requested stay to halt SB4 while federal challenges proceed in lower courts. He said that he meets the requirements for imposing this.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed SB4 in December, giving state officials the power to arrest people suspected of entering the United States without documentation. Abbott said the law was necessary because of a lack of enforcement of federal laws. Joe: “Biden’s deliberate inaction has left Texas to fend for itself,” he said.
Border issues, including record numbers of illegal immigrants, are key election issues for Republicans. Mr. Abbott and others argue that Mr. Biden should have maintained the restrictive policies put in place by Donald Trump, the Republican nominee who will run against him in November.
House Republicans impeached Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, but given that Democrats control the Senate, this political move is unlikely to lead to his removal from office.
The Biden administration has pointed to how Republicans last month scrapped a bipartisan Senate agreement that would have strengthened border security and immigration laws. Biden said the blame lies with Republicans who bowed to pressure from President Trump, who wanted to campaign against a backdrop of border chaos.
“SB4 is just one example of how Republican officials are politicizing the border issue while blocking real solutions,” Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. That’s why we continue to call on Congressional Republicans to pass a bipartisan border security agreement, the toughest and fairest border reform in decades.”
Texas has pursued other hard-line measures to deter immigration, including deploying the National Guard and installing bellows wire and floating barriers. SB4 criminalizes illegal entry or re-entry. A state judge would have to order the immigrants to return to Mexico, or face up to 20 years in prison.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in January seeking to block the law, which was scheduled to go into effect on March 5. Lawyers say the law violates federal law and provisions of the Constitution that give the federal government power to regulate commerce with foreign countries and between states, and violates a 2012 Supreme Court precedent. claimed to have done so.
That same year, a court struck down part of a bill in Arizona that would have allowed police to arrest people for violating federal immigration law, given that it would have given police officers more latitude in determining who is who. , dubbed the “show me the paperwork” bill by opponents. Approaching the. Later, a divided Supreme Court ruled that Washington’s impasse over immigration did not justify state intrusion.
On February 29, Texas U.S. District Judge David Ezra issued a preliminary injunction against SB4, arguing that it “threatens the fundamental concept that the United States must use one voice to regulate immigration.” Ezra’s sentence was suspended by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. I got it. Because of right-wing tendencies. The Texas law would then go into effect on March 10, and the administration would file an emergency request with the Supreme Court.
Right-wing Justice Samuel Alito, who oversees emergencies in states including Texas, temporarily halted the Fifth Circuit’s ruling.
inside her be against, Sotomayor emphasized that “the only court that has considered this law has concluded that it is likely unconstitutional.” He also said the Texas law “suggests serious issues that are the subject of ongoing political debate.”
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick I saluted This is a “historic” decision regarding a law he co-authored that “gives Texas the right to arrest, prosecute, and deport those who enter Texas illegally.” He also claimed that Texas is being “invaded by land, sea and air.”
Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa countered that SB4 “is not about community safety, it’s about enabling community safety.” [law enforcement] Target neighborhoods and jail people for Fox News headlines. This inhumane border strategy forces Americans to carry passports in their own neighborhoods and mass deportations of immigrant women and children, while overburdening local law enforcement. This will place a heavy burden on you. ”
Sawyer Hackett, former San Antonio mayor and advisor to Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro – I lamented It’s an “incredible” opinion supporting “clearly unconstitutional ‘show me your documents’ laws.”
“The Supreme Court just put a target on the backs of every brown person in the state of Texas,” he said.
Reuters contributed to this report
