Texas’ migrant arrest law is back on hold after briefly taking effect
McALLEN, Texas — Texas’ plans to arrest migrants suspected of entering the U.S. illegally were put on hold again Wednesday after uncertainty built up along the border and anger flared from Mexico during the few hours the law was allowed to take effect .
An order late Tuesday from a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily suspended Texas’ dramatic state expansion of border enforcement. Earlier in the day, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the tough immigration law, handing a victory to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and emboldening GOP lawmakers in other states who are pushing for similar measures.
But later, in a 2-1 order, an appeals court panel continued the legal seesaw over the Texas law, putting it on pause again ahead of oral arguments scheduled for Wednesday. It was not clear how soon the next decision would come.
During the brief time the law was in effect Tuesday, Texas authorities did not announce that any arrests had been made or say whether the law was being actively enforced. Along the border in Kinney County, Sheriff Brad Coe embraced arrest powers but said deputies needed probable cause.
“It is unlikely that observers will see an overnight change,” said Coe, whose province covers a border area near Del Rio that was until recently the busiest corridor for illegal border crossings but has now become considerably quieter become.
The Supreme Court has not ruled on the merits of the law. Instead, a challenge led by the Justice Department was sent back to the lower appeals court, which has argued that Texas is violating the federal government’s immigration authority.
The appeals court’s latest order contained no explanation from the panel. But it had the effect of reinstating an order issued in February by U.S. District Judge David Ezra, which rebuked the law on multiple fronts. His 114-page opinion dismissed Republicans’ claims of an “invasion” along the southern border due to record high illegal border crossings. Ezra, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, also warned that the law could hamper U.S. foreign relations.
Under Texas law, once suspects are taken into custody on illegal entry charges, they can consent to a judge’s order to leave the U.S. or face prosecution. On Tuesday, Mexico’s foreign minister said in a strongly worded statement that the country would refuse to take back anyone ordered to cross the border.
“Mexico reiterates its legitimate right to protect the rights of its nationals in the United States and to determine its own policies regarding access to its territory,” the government said.
The impact extends far beyond the Texas border. Republican lawmakers have written the law to apply in all of the state’s 254 counties, although Steve McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has said he expects the law will be mostly enforced near the border.
Other Republican Party-led states are already looking to follow Texas’ path. In Iowa, the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday gave final approval to a bill that would also give law enforcement authorities the power to arrest people who are in the U.S. illegally and who have previously been denied entry into the country.
It now goes to Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds. If signed, it would take effect in July.
“The federal government has abdicated its responsibilities and states can and must act,” said Republican Iowa State Rep. Steven Holt.
In Texas, Judge Ricardo Samaniego, El Paso County’s top executive, said immigration enforcement should remain a federal responsibility, not a state one, echoing the Biden administration’s position. He said the increased law enforcement presence in the city of El Paso during an earlier wave of migrants led to high-speed chases and traffic stops based on the belief that passengers were in the country illegally.
“We had accidents, we had injuries, we got a glimpse of what would happen if the state started to control what happens with regard to immigration,” Samaniego said.
Skylor Hearn, executive director of the Sheriffs’ Association of Texas, said sheriff’s offices have been training since last year.
“If a county chooses to take it on themselves, they are choosing for their taxpayers to take it on themselves,” Hearn said. “As long as the federal government is willing to do the part that they should be doing, it’s ideal for them to take possession of these people and take them into custody.”
Daniel Morales, an associate professor of law at the University of Houston Law Center, said the Texas law is “very clearly going to be a mess to enforce.”
“It’s very clear that Greg Abbott wants to enforce the law so that he gets lots of photo opportunities and opportunities, but it’s going to take a lot of state resources to implement that. And I don’t really know how much appetite and capacity the state government actually has for that,” Morales said. Texas will find enforcement “difficult and burdensome,” he said.
Arrests for illegal crossings fell by half in January, compared to a record high of 250,000 in December, with sharp declines in Texas. Arrests in the Border Patrol’s Del Rio sector, which Abbott focuses on, are down 76% from December. Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for illegal border crossings for much of the past decade, recorded the fewest arrests since June 2020.
Tucson, Arizona, has been the busiest corridor in recent months, followed by San Diego in January, but the reasons for sudden shifts are often complicated and determined by smuggling organizations.
When President Joe Biden visited the Rio Grande Valley last month for his second trip to the border as president, administration officials blamed Mexico’s increased enforcement on that part of the border for the drop in apprehensions. They said conditions were more challenging for Mexican law enforcement in Sonora, the state south of Arizona.
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Associated Press writers Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas, Juan Al. Lozano in Houston, Christopher Sherman in Mexico City and Scott McFetridge in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.