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The Department of Justice is challenging Senate Bill 4 which creates state-level penalties for illegally enter the U.S. through the Texas-Mexico border. Gov. Gregg Abbott signed the bill in December and is set to go into effect in March.
In a lawsuit filed last Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice is accusing Texas of usurping the federal government’s authority over immigration with an “unconstitutional” law set to go in effect in March.
The law, Senate Bill 4, creates state-level penalties for illegally entering the U.S. through the Texas-Mexico border.
File in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, federal prosecutors argue SB will infringe upon and counteract federal efforts to enforce immigration laws, saying SB 4 is invalid and is a violation of the Supremacy Clause and must be enjoined.
According to Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta in a statement announcing the lawsuit, “Under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution and longstanding Supreme Court precedent, states cannot adopt immigration laws that interfere with the framework enacted by Congress.”
The legislation authored by Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, was passed in November and created a series of penalties for those suspected of coming into Texas from Mexico other than through a legal international port of entry. The penalties range from a Class B misdemeanor to a second-degree felony.
SB 4 also requires people accused of illegally crossing the state’s southern border to either accept a magistrate judge’s deportation order or face a second- degree felony charge for noncompliance.
The ACLU of Texas additionally filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Public Safety the day after it was signed into law to stop it from taking effect.
In response to the initial challenges, Abbott said, “Texas will take this fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary to protect Texans from President Biden’s dangerous open border policies.”
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson gave Abbott’s argument a boost last Wednesday during a Republican delegation trip to the border town of Eagle Pass, saying that the governor has “heroically” done more to fix the border crisis than any president and that Texas and other border states have the right to institute polices to protect their borders.
Following the federal challenge to SB 4, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a post social media, that he is prepared to defend challenges against SB 4 and to push against the “federal government’s open borders doctrine.”
“I am prepared to fight the Biden Administration whose immigration disaster is leading our country to ruin,” Paxton said. “Texas has the sovereign right to protect our state.”