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Federal Judge Blocks Texas Immigration Law – Governor Plans to Appeal

It’s absolutely no secret that much of America is dealing with an immigration law. However, no state is suffering more than Texas.

The issues of immigration have even brought both Presidential candidates, President Trump and Joe Biden to the border on the same day.

In order to combat the influx of immigration issues recently, Texas legislation proposed Senate Bill 4 in December.

The Texas Tribune has more on the specifics of SB 4:

The law seeks to make illegally crossing the border a Class B misdemeanor, carrying a punishment of up to six months in jail. Repeat offenders could face a second-degree felony with a punishment of two to 20 years in prison.

The law also seeks to require state judges to order migrants returned to Mexico if they are convicted; local law enforcement would be responsible for transporting migrants to the border. A judge could drop the charges if a migrant agrees to return to Mexico voluntarily.

The law, however, was not accepted by everyone, with Texas being sued by the federal government, along with other immigration advocacy organizations.

Most recently, a federal judge in Austin, Texas ordered the Texas government to suspend SB 4.

CNN Politics has more on the judge’s ruling:

“If allowed to procced, SB 4 could open the door to each state passing its own version of immigration laws,” Judge David Alan Ezra wrote, granting a preliminary injunction against the law.

The judge rejected the state’s argument that the current influx of migrants across the southern border is an “invasion” that Texas has the right to stop unilaterally. “SB 4 threatens the fundamental notion that the United States must regulate immigration with one voice,” Ezra wrote.

Without action from the court, the law was set to go into effect on Tuesday. Plaintiffs include the federal government and El Paso County, which claims enforcing the law would strain its jail system with thousands of new arrests.

Despite this blocking, Texas plans on appealing the ruling of the federal judge.

BBC News goes more into Texas Governor Abbott’s response:

The state’s governor says he will appeal. He is accompanying Donald Trump on a border visit on Thursday, while President Joe Biden makes his own trip.

Governor Greg Abbott said his state would not “back down in our fight to protect our state – and our nation – from President Biden’s border crisis”.

Mr Abbott has previously alluded to a “tidal wave” of illegal entry into his state. More than 6.3 million migrants have been detained crossing into the US illegally under President Biden – higher than was seen under previous presidencies – though reasons for the spike are complex with some factors pre-dating Mr Biden’s time in office.

The blocking of SB 4 has brought many to X, with many conflicting views:

To simply put it, the federal government has not done enough to support Texas in the immigration issues, forcing Governor Abbott and Texas to take matters into their own hands.

Governor Abbott is not worried about the blocking by the federal judge, Fox News has more on his comments:

“This was fully expected,” he wrote. “Texas has solid legal grounds to defend against an invasion.”


 

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