A US federal appeals court issued an order that prevents Texas state authorities from detaining and deporting migrants and asylum seekers suspected of entering the United States illegally, hours after the Supreme Court allowed the strict new immigration law to take effect.
The decision on Tuesday by the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals came weeks after a panel on the same court cleared the way for Texas to enforce the controversial law by putting a pause on a lower judge’s injunction, arguing that the federal government has authority over immigration matters, rather than individual states.
By a 2-1 order, a panel of the appeals court lifted that pause ahead of arguments before the court on Wednesday.
Earlier on Tuesday the Supreme Court lifted a pause on the measure that critics have dubbed the “show me your papers” law, voting six to three to allow the law, Texas Senate Bill 4 (SB4), to go immediately into effect.
Legal scholars have argued that the law subverts the federal government’s constitutional authority to carry out immigration enforcement.
Rights groups have warned it threatens to increase racial profiling and imperil the rights of asylum seekers. The American Civil Liberties Union, for instance, called SB4 “one of the most extreme anti-immigrant laws ever passed by any state legislature” in the US.
The administration of President Joe Biden has challenged SB4 because the law is unconstitutional.
