A federal judge has blocked a controversial Texas law that would empower state and local police to arrest people suspected of having crossed the border illegally, the Texas Tribune reports.
U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra handed down his preliminary injunction on Thursday, the day before the new law was scheduled to go into effect.
During a Wednesday hearing, Ezra stated that he had constitutional concerns about the legislation, which critics dubbed the “Show Me Your Papers Law,” stating that it flies in the face of past court rulings stipulating that immigration enforcement is the job of the federal government.
“Indeed, it is implausible to imagine each of the fifty United States having their own state immigration policy superseding the powers inherent in the United States as a nation,” the Austin-based judge stated in his written ruling, as reported by the Texas Tribune.
The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 4 in 2023, which makes crossing the Texas-Mexico border a state crime. The legislation also requires magistrate judges to order people convicted under the statute to leave the country for Mexico.
Civil liberties groups filed a class-action lawsuit early this month to stop provisions of SB 4 that empower state and local law enforcement to conduct arrests for immigration violations.
In their suit, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, ACLU and the Texas Civil Rights Project argued the law is unconstitutional and shouldn’t be allowed to go into effect.
The state’s plans to begin enforcing SB 4 began moving after a federal appeals court earlier this month removed a lower court’s block that had idled the law for years.
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The law, which gives state law enforcement and judges a role in immigration enforcement, is set to go into effect in two days.
Senate Bill 4, set to go into effect next week, empowers state authorities bring charges against people for illegally crossing the border — traditionally a power reserved for the federal government.
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.