The Justice Department sued the state of Texas on Wednesday over a new state law that would authorize local police and judges to arrest and remove undocumented immigrants – another legal showdown between the Biden administration and the Republican-run state over border issues.
The statute is due to go into effect in a matter of months, and in a letter last week, Justice Department officials had warned Texas that it was unconstitutional, allocating to local officials powers that have been reserved for the federal government.
In the same letter, the Justice Department gave Texas until Wednesday to respond.
“SB 4 is clearly unconstitutional,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta in a written statement announcing the lawsuit. She said long-standing Supreme Court rulings show states “cannot adopt immigration laws that interfere with the framework enacted by Congress.”
The high court has ruled, as recently as 2012, that immigration enforcement is a federal, not state responsibility.
In signing the law known as Senate Bill 4, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said it will “help stop the tidal wave of illegal entry into Texas, add additional funding to build more border wall and crack down on human smuggling.”
Immigration policy has long been a flash point between Republicans and Democrats, and Congress has tried and failed for years to address the issue. Former president Donald Trump, a Republican, made cracking down on illegal immigration a central focus of his administration and has vowed to do so again if reelected in 2024.
The debate over immigration has intensified not just within border states like Texas but also in northern states, where busloads of migrants have arrived needing assistance.
Separately Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) led a delegation of more than 50 fellow House Republicans to Texas to inspect the U.S.-Mexico border and criticize the Biden administration.
Republicans, and Abbott in particular, have faulted the administration for the recent influx of migrants and claim the new state law is necessary to do what the federal government has not.
“President Biden has repeatedly refused to enforce federal immigration laws already on the books and do his job to secure the border,” Abbott said in a statement last month, vowing to take the fight “all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.”
Civil rights groups have already filed their own lawsuit over the new law, and Texas is fighting a separate legal battle with the Justice Department over razor-wire border fencing installed by state officials.
There were more than 2 million illegal crossings at the southwest border with Mexico for each of the past two fiscal years, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Border crossings surged in the second half of last year after dropping briefly in June, with migrants from around the globe entering from Mexico to seek asylum, economic opportunities or a new life in the United States.
(c) 2024, The Washington Post · Devlin Barrett
She may correct that a state cannot enact an immigration law that’s against what Congress has passed. However, Texas is trying to enforce current immigration law, which the Federal Government is refusing to do.