The Biden administration is currently waging a legal campaign against Republican-led states, arguing that state laws that effectively restrict illegal immigration are unconstitutional.
The Department of Justice has Lawsuit filed The protests came after three states passed laws giving police greater power to enforce immigration rules, but against the backdrop of an unprecedented border crisis, state leaders there say they have no choice but to tackle the issue themselves because the Biden administration will not do so, and other Republican states may soon follow suit. (Related article: ‘Exploitable loophole’: Biden administration’s latest plan for migrant surge could have unintended consequences)
Texas, Iowa and Oklahoma have all signed similar bills into law in recent months making illegal immigration a state crime: Texas Senate Bill 4, Iowa Senate Bill 2340 and Oklahoma House Bill 4156. Empowering Law Enforcement It arrests illegal immigrants and imposes various penalties for remaining in the country illegally.
“States are trying to protect themselves because the current administration has abdicated its duty to enforce the laws,” Matt Crapo, senior counsel at the Immigration Reform Law Institute, explained to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “They’re trying to protect themselves by copying federal law and enforcing the same types of laws that the current administration is enforcing.”
But the Biden administration argues that these laws are unconstitutional because they infringe on the federal government’s sole authority to enforce immigration law.
Whether those states can enforce the law will likely depend on the Supreme Court: A law passed in Texas, the first of the three states to adopt this approach, could end up before the nation’s highest court.
DALLAS, TX – MAY 18: Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks during the NRA ILA Leadership Forum during the National Rifle Association (NRA) Annual Meeting & Exposition at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center on May 18, 2024 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The Immigration Reform Law Institute, a legal group that supports stricter immigration laws, Amicus Brief Crapo said the group plans to file similar briefs in support of the Iowa and Oklahoma bills if those states move to challenge the federal court’s preliminary injunction.
In its Texas brief, IRLI argued that while SB 4 is “analogous” to similar federal immigration offenses, the law does not interfere with the federal government’s authority to decide which classes of aliens to admit or deport.
But not all legal experts agree that Texas’ law is constitutional.
“SB4 is cruel, inhumane and patently unconstitutional,” Kate said. Meloy Götter, Senior Legal Director The American Immigration Council March Statement. “All of these bills would result in serious civil rights violations and could lead to widespread arrests and deportations by state authorities without significant federal protections.”
“Our hope is that SB 4 will ultimately be blocked in court, otherwise this will set a terrible precedent,” Gottel continued.
Immigration experts are unsure how the Supreme Court will ultimately rule.
“Whether the Supreme Court will criminalize illegal entry into Texas is, in some ways, an open question,” Art Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies told DCNF, noting that the case is fundamentally different from the challenge to a 2010 Arizona law that criminalized illegal immigrant status. Almost shattered“Texas’ argument is that ‘trespass is a major state crime, and because this is essentially a criminal trespass offense, the federal government does not have total authority over this crime,'” he said.
Arthur noted that Texas’ laws are fundamentally different from those in Iowa and Oklahoma, which could lead to a very different outcome in a legal battle. Unlike those states, Texas shares a border with Mexico and has more power to crack down on illegal entry.
“The Supreme Court’s decision on SB 4 will tell us a lot about how influential these other laws are, but these other laws are distinct from SB 4,” he said. “So if states are serious about this issue, they’re going to have to take it all the way to the Supreme Court.”
As the bill’s sponsors have argued, Arthur said the passage of these state laws is not a “political stunt” but a cry for help and an assertion that the Biden administration has abandoned immigration enforcement.
Federal immigration data shows illegal immigration is at historic levels.
Border Patrol agents have encountered illegal immigrants more than 1.171 million times this fiscal year. according to According to the latest data from Customs and Border Protection, there have been well over 6 million such encounters since President Joe Biden took over the White House.
The influx of illegal immigrants has been followed by a series of high-profile crimes, including the murder of a nursing student in Georgia at the hands of an illegal Venezuelan immigrant and the attempted break-in at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia by two Jordanian nationals living in the country illegally. A report by New Jersey lawmakers found that the state spends more than $7 billion a year to cover the costs of illegal immigration.
Migrants released from an immigration detention center board buses to head to a shelter as construction progresses on a new immigration processing facility at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection-El Paso Border Patrol Station in east El Paso on April 28, 2019. (Photo by Paul Rathe/AFP) (Photo by Paul Rathe/AFP via Getty Images)
For these reasons, Republican state leaders say they have no choice but to address the crisis themselves, even as the Biden administration threatens to sue.
“The Biden administration is refusing to do its job, so we have to,” Louisiana Sen. Valerie Hodges, who is sponsoring a bill that, if signed into law, would make illegal immigration a state crime, told the DCNF.
Her legislation is Senate Bill 388would impose up to one year in prison and a $4,000 fine for a first offense and up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine for a repeat offense. The bill has already passed both houses of the state legislature and must receive procedural approval from the state Senate before it reaches the governor.
Like the governors and attorneys general of states already facing lawsuits from the Justice Department, the state senator seemed unfazed by the possibility of a legal battle.
“If the federal government isn’t doing its job, what path do we have? If we don’t do anything, we’re going to collapse. I believe we can do this within the bounds of the Constitution.”
“Maybe we should sue them for dereliction of duty,” she added.
The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
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