On Thursday, a federal judge in Texas blocked a new law that would make illegal immigration a state crime.
Federal judge David Ezra granted a preliminary injunction that will block Texas’ SB 4 from taking effect next week. The law would allow state authorities to arrest and jail illegal immigrants, and would give state judges the power to order deportations.
Senate Bill 4 was a bid by the state to take over immigration enforcement from the federal government — which Texas officials argued in court has allowed or even facilitated an “invasion” of undocumented migrants into the state.
In his ruling, the judge wrote that states “may not exercise immigration enforcement power except as authorized by the federal government.”
“Several factors warrant an injunction. First, the Supremacy Clause and Supreme Court precedent affirm that states may not exercise immigration enforcement power except as authorized by the federal government,” Ezra wrote.
Second, he wrote that the law “conflicts with key provisions of federal immigration law, to the detriment of the United States’ foreign relations and treaty obligations.”
Finally, he determined that “surges in immigration do not constitute an ‘’invasion’ within the meaning of the Constitution, nor is Texas engaging in war by enforcing SB 4.”
The case will now likely be appealed by the to the conservative-leaning 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, according to The Hill.
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