Federal judge blocks anti-migrant Texas law and shoots down GOP ‘invasion’ claims

A federal judge in Texas has temporarily blocked a state law that would allow local law enforcement to arrest, detain and kick out migrants if they’re suspected of being in the US without legal permission, going above federal authorities to enforce what civil rights groups have condemned as one of the most “extreme anti-immigrant” laws in the country.

The court’s decision on Thursday will block the law from going into effect while litigation continues from a pair of lawsuits from the US Department of Justice and a coalition of immigrant advocates.

US District Judge David Alan Ezra said the state was likely violating the constitution and US immigration laws, but he also shot down the states’ contention – and arguments from Republican officials – that an increase in immigration from the US-Mexico border constitutes an “invasion”.

“To allow Texas to permanently supersede federal directives on the basis of an invasion would amount to nullification of federal law and authority – a notion that is antithetical to the Constitution and has been unequivocally rejected by federal courts since the Civil War,” he added.

Texas’s Senate Bill 4, derided as a “show me your papers” law set to take effect on 5 March, would allow state and local law enforcement to police immigration, superseding federal authority, as immigration on the US-Mexico border and the government’s ability to process people seeking asylum become a volatile flashpoint for 2024 elections.

A lawsuit from civil rights groups and the Justice Department against Republican Governor Greg Abbott and the state’s Department of Public Safety argued that the law is preempted by the US Constitution, and unlawfully puts immigration law into the hands of Texas judges to determine