On March 19, 2024, the Supreme Court declined to block the implementation of Texas Senate Bill 4 (“SB4”), which essentially creates a state-run immigration enforcement scheme for those who enter Texas without inspection, and would allow state officials to deport individuals – a legally unprecedented, and blatantly political, attempt by a state government to take on powers of the federal government. Texas lawmakers passed SB4 in 2023, but the Biden Administration and other organizations promptly filed a lawsuit to block the law from going into effect. When the Fifth Circuit declined to pause the implementation of the law pending appeal before the court, the Biden Administration filed an emergency motion to the Supreme Court, which likewise declined to pause the law’s implementation. After the Supreme Court’s decision, the Fifth Circuit put a hold on the law’s implementation that same day. As a result, the law has yet to go into effect. Whether Texas can ever implement this controversial and anti-immigrant law remains to be seen, and is currently being litigated before the Fifth Circuit.

Read full article here.