A U.S. appeals court on Friday appeared to clear the way for an unprecedented Texas law empowering state officials to arrest and deport migrants.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The largely conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the plaintiffs challenging the 2023 law \u2014 passed when hundreds of thousands of migrants were crossing into the U.S. each month \u2014 do not have standing. The case now heads back to a lower court.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t immediately clear whether Texas officials plan to begin enforcing the law should it take effect. The measure allows any police officer in the state to arrest migrants they suspect of entering illegally and empowers judges to order their removal. A spokesman for Gov. Greg Abbott said his office was reviewing the decision.<\/p>\n
The governor \u201cthanks the Fifth Circuit for reaffirming this common-sense law that helps ensure public safety,\u201d Andrew Mahaleris said. \u201cTexas will not back down from its constitutional right to self-defense.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs called the ruling \u201ca setback, not the final word.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We are alarmed by the Fifth Circuit’s decision to allow S.B. 4 to move forward, leaving immigrant families across Texas to live in fear of a law that a prior panel rightly found unconstitutional,\u201d said Edna Yang, co-executive director of American Gateways.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Biden administration sued to stop the law in 2024, arguing Texas was seizing immigration enforcement powers long left to the federal government. But the Trump administration pulled out of the case last year, leaving El Paso County and two advocacy groups to carry the legal challenge. Texas state troopers are already assisting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in President Donald Trump\u2019s mass deportation effort.<\/p>\n
The 5th Circuit wrote in the 10-7 ruling that the law \u201cis enforceable only against aliens illegally present in Texas, not against advocacy organizations or Texas counties,\u201d the opinion said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The ruling did not address the law itself, even as it overturned a lower court ruling that called the law \u201cpatently unconstitutional.\u201d Seven justices on the appeals court appeared to agree in a dissenting opinion Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cFederal laws on the books permit Texas to assist the federal government in apprehending illegal immigrants if the federal government so requests,\u201d they wrote. \u201cBut Texas cannot enact its own immigration regime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attorney General Ken\u00a0Paxton cheered the ruling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTexas\u2019s right to arrest illegals, protect our citizens, and enforce immigration law is fundamental,\u201d he wrote on X. \u201cThis is a major win for public safety and law and order.\u201d<\/p>\n
When they passed the law, Texas Republicans said they hoped it would spur the now-solidly conservative Supreme Court to revisit a landmark 2012 ruling that held that only the federal government has the power to enforce immigration laws. In that case, the high court struck down portions of an Arizona law authorizing police to arrest anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.\u00a0<\/p>\n