Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Texas Law to Enforce Border Security

On Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) issued a temporary stay on a new state law in Texas which allowed state authorities to enforce the border and arrest and deport illegal aliens.

As reported by Just The News, the stay was imposed by Associate Justice Samuel Alito after a previous ruling by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the law to take effect on March 10th. A prior stay had been imposed by U.S. District Judge David Ezra in February.

Justice Alito gave the state of Texas until March 11th to respond to the complaints made by the Biden Administration which led to the stay. The ruling will remain in effect until March 13th.

Ezra argued in his stay that the law in question would allow Texas to “permanently supersede federal directives,” in a manner that would lead to the  “nullification of federal law and authority — a notion that is antithetical to the Constitution and has been unequivocally rejected by federal courts since the Civil War.”

This marks the latest step in the ongoing dispute between Texas and the Biden Administration, as Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) has taken matters into his own hands due to the federal government’s deliberate decision to open the southern border and not enforce federal immigration laws. Governor Abbott ordered state authorities to start constructing makeshift barriers along the southern border, including the use of barbed wire, metal shipping containers, and buoy barriers lining the Rio Grande River.

The Supreme Court recently ruled against Texas with regards to the physical barriers, allowing federal authorities to continue removing them. But Governor Abbott openly defied the Court’s ruling and announced that the state would continue putting the barriers in place anyway.

The law in question is the latest effort by Texas to deal with the mass migration crisis, with the bill making it a state crime to illegally enter Texas from a foreign country, and thus giving state authorities the right to arrest and deport illegal aliens.