2024-02-29 19:08:00
Federal judge blocks enforcement of controversial Texas immigration law
National Guard soldiers stand near a gas heater at Shelby Park on Feb. 3 in Eagle Pass, Texas. Michael González/Getty Images
As President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump head to Texas, a federal judge in Austin ordered the state government to suspend enforcement of a controversial law that would allow state agents to arrest and detain people they suspect of entering the country illegally.
“If allowed to proceed, SB 4 might open the door for each state to pass its own version of immigration laws,” Judge David Alan Ezra wrote, granting a preliminary injunction once morest the law.
The judge rejected the state’s argument that the current influx of migrants across the southern border is an “invasion” that Texas has the right to unilaterally stop. “SB 4 threatens the fundamental notion that the United States must regulate immigration with one voice,” Ezra wrote.
Without court action, the law would take effect Tuesday. The plaintiffs include the federal government and El Paso County, which claims that enforcing the law would overload its prison system with thousands of new arrests.
“El Paso County applauds the court’s clear confirmation today that immigration policies depend solely on federal jurisdiction, and that the state of Texas’s interference with the United States Constitution will not be tolerated,” said Iliana Holguín, El Paso County Commissioner.
CNN has reached out to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s office for comment.
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