Roller coaster rulings cause confusion on Texas immigration law
Back and forth court rulings over Texas’ new immigration law left local and state law enforcement agencies struggling to understand their mandate as the legal ground repeatedly shifted.
Monday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court extended an order blocking Senate Bill 4 – which seeks to give the state a role in arresting and deporting migrants – only to reverse course Tuesday morning and give Texas permission to enforce the law, which had been struck down as unconstitutional by a federal judge in February.
That changed again around 10 p.m. Tuesday, when the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked SB 4. The appeals court followed by hearing oral arguments Wednesday about whether Texas should be allowed to enforce the law while its judges determine whether it is constitutional.
The legal whiplash had some law enforcement agencies scrambling to receive guidance from the state or the Texas Department of Public Safety – the agency that would be in charge of handling a bulk of the arrests under SB4, which created a series of new state crimes for unauthorized migrants who
crossed into the state.
In Maverick County, home to Eagle Pass, which has been the epicenter of Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security crackdown, Sheriff Tom Schmerber said his deputies did not enforce the law in the nine hours it was in effect.
“I don’t have the information, and I don’t have the manpower,” Schmerber said Wednesday. “I don’t have the resources to be able to process immigrants.”
Schmerber said his office has about 32 deputies. To begin making arrests, Schmerber said he would need closer to 90
deputies to patrol the county and enforce the new sweeping immigration law as well as other laws.
In Kinney County, Sheriff Brad Coe said his deputies were ready to begin making arrests if there was probable cause to detain migrants believed to be in the state illegally. His deputies made no arrests Tuesday.
It’s not clear if DPS troopers who were already stationed along the U.S.Mexico border under Operation Lone Star – the state’s multibillion dollar border security effort – attempted to enforce the
law Tuesday.
DPS officials did not respond to emails, phone calls or text messages Wednesday asking if the agency had issued guidance to its troopers or to other law enforcement agencies about enforcing SB 4.
A spokesman for Gov. Greg Abbott said the governor’s office has worked closely with DPS and other law enforcement on how to implement SB 4, but he declined to give details.
“Texas will not publicly give away our operational details to the Mexican drug cartels smuggling illegal immigrants, drugs, and weapons into our country; but we are fully prepared to enforce Senate Bill 4,” Andrew Mahaleris said in a written statement Wednesday night.
The disparity between Maverick and Kinney County – which neighbor each other and sit along the U.S.-Mexico border – highlights the confusion the law has caused. Other law enforcement agencies went a step further and hinted that they might not enforce the law.
“Although we will always follow the law, the primary responsibility for immigration enforcement and border protection should be left to our federal and state partners,”
Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes said earlier this week.
The statement drew criticism from House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, who said it was mandatory for law enforcement agencies to enforce state laws.
“Any local law enforcement agency that refuses to enforce Senate Bill 4 is abandoning their sworn duty to uphold the rule of law,” Phelan said Tuesday on social media.
Phelan said the Legislature passed a law that targeted district attorneys for removal if they don’t enforce certain laws, adding that “selective enforcement of the law is unacceptable and dangerous.”
Hours later, Fort Worth police released a one sentence statement: “To be clear – and so there is no confusion – Fort Worth Police Department will ALWAYS enforce the law.”
Abbott on Wednesday compared recent legal developments to a tennis match.
“The ball goes back and forth across the net constantly,” he said in a speech at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Austin.
The latest episode took place Wednesday morning when a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court heard oral arguments to decide if it would continue to block the law or let it go back into effect while its judges weigh the law’s legality.
An attorney for Texas defended SB 4 as enforceable because it falls under the state’s authority to mirror federal law, while a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice said the law infringes on the federal government’s authority to handle immigration and foreign policy matters.
The panel did not issue a ruling.
Three sheriffs whose counties sit along the U.S.-Mexico border said Wednesday that they were waiting for DPS or another state agency to provide direction on how to respond once the law goes into effect.
Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Martinez said there are still areas of the bill that need to be ironed out. He declined to provide details.
“We’re just waiting for some direction,” Martinez said at the Capitol.