Officials praise, chastise ruling on SB4
Top conservative officials and lawmakers praised the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday for allowing a new state law to go into effect that empowers Texas officials to act like the federal government and essentially deport migrants.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office defended the law known as Senate Bill 4 in court, took credit for the “huge win” over the Biden Administration, which is fighting the legislation.
“Our immigration law, SB 4, is now in effect,” Paxton wrote on X. “As always, it’s my honor to defend Texas and its soverbill, and to lead us to victory in court.”
The law, which was twice delayed from taking effect by the courts, makes it a crime to enter the state from Mexico illegally. It allows any law enforcement officer in Texas to arrest migrants they suspect of violating the law and empowers judges to order their removal.
A top Mexican official said Tuesday the country would not accept deportations from Texas.
“Mexico expresses its rejection of the decision of the Supreme Court,” said Roberto Velasco Álvarez, the top North American official in Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, in Spanish. “The dialogue on immigration matters will continue between the federal governments of Mexico and the U.S.”
The Justice Department and civil and immigrant rights groups suing to block the law have said the law is “patently unconstitutional” by handing over a federal responsibility to the state and they believe it will cause “severe harms,” such as racial profiling by police. Leaders of those groups and their lawyers expressed their disappointment in the high court’s decision Tuesday.
“S.B. 4 threatens our most basic civil and human rights as citizens and non-citizens alike and we recommend anyone threatened by this, including people who fear racial profileignty, ing, to remember their rights,” said Adriana Piñon, legal director at the ACLU of Texas, which represented the plaintiffs, in a statement. “We will continue to halt this hateful law.”
Texas Democrats, angered and concerned by the decision, took to social media to denounce it.
State Rep. Victoria Neave Criado, chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, said in a statement Tuesday that “laws like this paint a target on our families and our constituents and the 12 million Latinos in Texas.”
State Sen. Brandon Creighton, a Republican from Conroe and one of the co-authors of the echoed Paxton and started looking ahead to further border measures.
“This is about Texas sovereignty, rule of law, and the security of Texas communities — and today, justice prevailed,” Creighton wrote on X.
State Rep. Matt Schaefer, a Tyler Republican who is a member of the far-right Texas Freedom Caucus, cautioned Texans not to get ahead of themselves. He noted that the Supreme Court’s decision was mostly based on procedure and the case now returns to the 5th Court of Appeals to be heard on the merits.
The ruling is “positive, but very limited,” Schaefer wrote on X.