A federal judge on Thursday blocked enforcement of Texas Senate Bill 4, preventing the law from taking effect one day before it was scheduled to allow state and local police to arrest people suspected of crossing the southern border illegally.
U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra issued a preliminary injunction halting key provisions of the 2023 law after civil rights groups challenged its constitutionality in court. The ruling stops the state from implementing sections that create a state crime for illegal entry from Mexico and require magistrate judges to order convicted individuals to leave the United States.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, and the Texas Civil Rights Project filed the lawsuit earlier this month, arguing that the law infringes on the federal government’s authority over immigration and lacks protections for individuals with lawful or pending immigration status.
Ezra stated in his written order that allowing individual states to set immigration policy would conflict with federal authority over immigration enforcement.
Senate Bill 4 was passed in 2023 and was scheduled to take effect after previous legal challenges were dismissed by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on standing grounds. The appeals court did not rule on the law’s constitutionality.
Texas officials have defended the law as consistent with federal immigration policy and argued that the state has authority to enforce border security measures.
Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.
State law enforcement agencies in Texas have separately participated in federal immigration enforcement partnerships under the 287(g) program.