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The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave Texas officials permission to jail and prosecute migrants suspected of crossing the U.S. southern border without authorization, greenlighting the enforcement of a state immigration law known as SB4 that the Biden administration had called unconstitutional.
The legislation is one of the most extreme anti-immigrant laws ever passed by any state legislature in the country and would permit local and state law enforcement to arrest, detain, and remove people they suspect to have entered Texas from another country without federal authorization.
The law allows any Texas law enforcement officer to arrest people suspected of entering the country illegally. Once in custody, migrants could either agree to a Texas judge's order to leave the U.S. or be prosecuted on misdemeanor charges of illegal entry. Migrants who don't leave could face arrest again under more serious felony charges.
The law can be enforced in any of Texas' 254 counties, including those hundreds of miles from the border. Migrants ordered to leave would be sent to ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, even if they are not Mexican citizens.
Image Texas National Guard under CC by 4.0 Deed
