All About Texas’ Tough Immigration Law And Why It’s Courting Trouble

As the election race hots up in the United States, the issue of illegal immigration is getting even hotter.

Over half of Americans aren’t too happy with the Biden administration’s handling of the border issue.

Biden is advocating a humane approach compared to the strict norms that were put in place by his predecessor, which includes a wall along the Mexico border.

Trying to cash in on popular discontent, Trump has now said he would carry out the biggest deportation in US history if he returns to the White House.

The Republican versus Democrat game is already playing out in Texas.

In December last year Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill called S.B. 4 into law, according to which illegal entry into the state was criminalised.

The law allowed state law enforcement agencies to arrest illegal migrants and produce them in court. Judges were empowered to order the accused to return to Mexico; non-compliance may attract up to 20 years in jail.

The law can be enforced in the entire state, which has 254 counties, including those that are far away from the Mexico border.

The man who authored the bill, Republican state representative David Miller says he expects the majority of arrests to happen within 80 kilometres of the border.

According to the law, arrests cannot be made in schools, places of worship, hospitals and other healthcare facilities. As per the law, illegal migrants will be sent back to Mexico but the latter has said it would accept that.

The Biden administration challenged that law in the Supreme Court, arguing that it runs counter to federal law. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court in a split verdict allowed Texas to implement the law.

The federal government says it disagrees with the Supreme Court order.

The White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “S.B. 4 will not only make communities in Texas less safe, it will also burden law enforcement, and sow chaos and confusion at our southern border. S.B. 4 is just another example of Republican officials politicizing the border while blocking real solutions.”

Mexico too condemned the law, with its foreign ministry saying it “seeks to stop the flow of migrants by criminalising them, encouraging the separation of families, discrimination and racial profiling that violate the human rights of the migrant community”

But within hours of the Supreme Court verdict, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order preventing enforcement of the law.

Texas Governor Abbott has long argued that the law is needed as the federal laws against illegal migration weren’t being enforced by the Biden administration, which is posing a security threat.

He wrote on X: “Hundreds on the terror watch list have entered our country illegally under President Biden. This will not stand. We must hold the Biden Administration accountable for their reckless open border policies that are endangering the safety of Americans.”

The White House has called the Texas law harmful and unconstitutional. The Supreme Court did not address the constitutionality of the law but opponents of the law say it is the most dramatic attempt by a state to police immigration since the Supreme Court struck down key parts of a somewhat similar law enacted by Arizona more than a decade ago.

(With inputs from Associated Press)