Posted on 03/20/2024 6:10:31 AM PDT by Red Badger
Hours after the Supreme Court gave Texas officials permission to jail and prosecute migrants suspected of crossing the U.S. southern border without authorization, an appeals court late Tuesday blocked the state from enforcing its controversial immigration law known as SB4.
In a late-night order, a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals panel dissolved a pause that it issued in early March to suspend a lower court ruling that found SB4 to be unconstitutional.
The order reinstated a ruling from U.S. District Court Judge David Ezra, who concluded in late February that SB4 conflicted with federal immigration laws and the Constitution.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Supreme Court denied a request from the Justice Department to void the initial 5th Circuit order that had paused Ezra's ruling. The high court allowed SB4 to take effect for several hours, though it's unclear whether Texas arrested any migrants under the law during that short time span.
Ezra's order blocking SB4 will stay in place until the 5th Circuit rules on Texas' request to allow the law to be enforced while the appeals court considers its legality. A virtual hearing on that question is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Passed by the Texas legislature last year, SB4 criminalizes unauthorized migration at the state level, making the act of entering the U.S. outside of a port of entry — already a federal offense — into a state crime. It also creates a state felony charge for illegal reentry.
SB4 empowers law enforcement officials in Texas, at the state and local level, to detain and prosecute migrants on these new criminal charges. It also grants state judges the power to require migrants to return to Mexico as an alternative to prosecution.
The Justice Department has said SB4 conflicts with federal law and the Constitution, noting that immigration enforcement, including arrests and deportations, have long been a federal responsibility. It has also argued the measure harms relations with the Mexican government, which has denounced SB4 as "anti-immigrant" and vowed to reject migrants returned by the state of Texas.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has positioned himself as the leading state critic of President Biden's border policies, has portrayed SB4 as a necessary measure to discourage migrants from crossing the Rio Grande, arguing the federal government has not done enough to deter illegal immigration.
Over the past three years, Texas has mounted the most aggressive state effort yet to challenge the federal government's power over immigration policy, busing tens of thousands of migrants to major, Democratic-led cities, assembling razor wire and buoys along stretches of the border to deter migrant crossings and filing multiple lawsuits against federal immigration programs.
Ignore the court just like democrats and Biden.
Arrest and deport illegals and cite the SCOTUS ruling as the authority to do so.
SCOTUS laid down the law and circuit court edicts are irrelevant after the fact.
Yeah, that struck me as very odd also.
I added another comment to my comment because I had forgotten to look before I posted my initial response. He was appointed by Ronald Reagan.
The system is overwhelmed right now.
It’s not going to stop at the ten million new Democrats Team Biden wants. Even Team Biden is beginning to realize it.
Reagan was always pulling pranks on people.
Then keep the pressure up.
Hell, I would put up a fence at the station that starts at the front door and creates a passageway to the back door.
Of the federal border station, not the police station.
Abbott has the SCOTUS decision. He needs to ignore all others.
Yes, I don’t get that.
“The migration or importation of such persons as any of the state now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year 1808...”
Article I, Section 9
In the year 1808 Congress gained power to block immigration, but IMO states still retain the right to refuse admission of and/or to kick out non-citizens, except those doing necessary and proper federal work, in a federal army or doing federal postal work.
Thank you. Knew it was in there somewhere!
Do it anyway, lets see the court enforce it.
...and protect it's land/citizens.
This is the same sort of crappola practiced every time a state tries to off some murdering Ahole — there is always a raft of suits waiting to jump in. By the same sort of folks, too.
When the law “law” changes three times in less than a week you are dealing with power politics, not law.
It appears that the sc is no longer the highest court in the land as liberals simply ignore sc rulings now (then turn around and demand that conservatives abide by sc rulings)
“Another exclusion law was passed in September, 1849, which simply forbade blacks from settling in the newly-declared Oregon Territory.”
“When Oregon’s constitution was submitted to Congress for approval, some Northern legislators complained about the exclusion law. However, others saw it as a structured way to avoid bloodshed over racial issues and the spread of slavery. Thus, in February, 1859, Oregon became the only state admitted to the Union with an exclusion law in its constitution. After several unsuccessful attempts, the state constitution was finally amended in 1926 to remove the exclusion law...Of course, these laws had long since been superseded by federal laws and amendments to the US Constitution following the Civil War”
“Exclusion laws seems bizarre and reprehensible today, but they were not uncommon in the Nineteenth Century. Settlers in the Oregon Country brought the idea with them from their old homes in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Both Illinois and Indiana had exclusion laws on the books in the Nineteenth Century”
https://historicoregoncity.org/2019/04/02/exclusion-laws/
Amendment XIV
“all persons born or naturalized...are citizens of the United States....no state shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States....”
Ebat does that mean specifically? That the lower court is within their rights to block Texas law?
Camilo from SeeBS says, “In yo face, gringos!”
“I’ve never understood the logic behind a superior court “remanding” an improper decision back to the court which made the improper decision to begin with.”
It is to save the Supreme Court justices time and effort.
Since when can a lower court overrule the SC? Madness!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.