Civil liberties groups filed a class-action lawsuit Monday to to prevent provisions of a controversial Texas law that empowers state and local law enforcement to arrest people they suspect of being in the country illegally — a duty traditionally reserved for federal officials.
In their suit, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, ACLU and the Texas Civil Rights Project said provisions of Senate Bill 4, passed in 2023 by the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature, are unconstitutional and shouldn’t be allowed to go into effect. Enforcement is expected to begin May 15 after a federal appeals court earlier this month lifted a lower court’s block that had idled the law for years.
The plaintiffs seeks to shut down the following provisions in the law, which was backed by Gov. Greg Abbott, arguing they could harm thousands of Texans, especially racial minorities who may be illegally targeted by state and local enforcement:
- Making it a state crime to re-enter the country without authorization.
- Giving magistrates, who don’t know the intricacies of immigration law, the power to deport people.
- Making it a crime not to comply with those magistrates’ removal orders.
- Empowering magistrates to pursue prosecutions in cases where a person already has a pending immigration case under federal law.
“SB 4 would transform our police and judges into immigration agents — threatening neighbors who have families here, who have lived here for years, even those who have legal status,” ACLU of Texas Legal Director Adriana Piñon said in a statement. “Immigration enforcement is exclusively the federal government’s arena, and no state has ever claimed the power Texas threatens to wield here. We are taking this back to court to defend our Texas communities.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit.
Critics of SB 4 have long maintained that it will increase racial profiling while running the risk that state and local authorities, who have little experience in immigration law, break up families and wrongly throw people out of the country. They also maintain that courts have long ruled that the feds have sole responsibility for immigration enforcement.
“Our fight against SB 4 isn’t over until justice wins,” Kate Gibson Kumar, a staff attorney at Texas Civil Rights Project, said in a statement. “SB 4 is not only unconstitutional, but a vile law that uses our Texas resources to harm communities across our state. The Texas Civil Rights Project will keep fighting to protect Texas communities from the wrath of SB 4.”
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The conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge Senate Bill 4, the 2023 law that lets state police arrest people suspected of entering the country illegally.
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