Supreme Court temporarily halts enforcement of Texas immigration law

CNN
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Supreme Court on Monday Temporarily suspends enforcement of Texas' The controversial immigration law allows state law enforcement to arrest and detain people suspected of entering the country illegally.

Justice Samuel Alito issued an executive order preventing the law from taking effect until March 13. The temporary stay gives the court more time to reconsider the case but does not indicate which side the court will lean on. (Alito oversees the Federal Circuit that handled the case.)

The Biden administration and several immigration groups filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court hours earlier, asking the justices to block the law's implementation.

Without the intervention, the law would have come into effect on the morning of March 10. The Justice Department said it would change the “deeply entrenched” position between the U.S. and the states over nearly 150 years of immigration. .”

Senate Bill 4Signed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in December, arrests and deportation efforts by state officials in Texas, which represents 40% of the Latino population, raised immediate concerns among immigration advocates about increased racial profiling.

Last week, a federal judge in Austin, Texas blocked the state government from enforcing the law.

“If allowed to proceed, SB 4 would open the door for each state to pass its own immigration laws,” wrote Judge David Allen Ezra.

A Federal Court of Appeals He said the law would come into effect by the end of the week if the Supreme Court did not act, imposing a temporary stay on the lower court's decision at the end of the week.

Immigration enforcement is typically a federal responsibility, but some border states have sought to step up in recent years amid a surge in immigration. On Monday, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, vetoed a bill Improved Republicans in the state legislature would have allowed police to arrest immigrants.

This story and topic have been updated with additional improvements.