The U.S. Supreme Court will keep Texas’ controversial immigration-enforcement law, Senate Bill 4, on hold until at least next week.
In an order Tuesday morning, Justice Samuel Alito extended an administrative stay on the law until Monday at 4 p.m. Central. It was scheduled to expire Wednesday unless the Supreme Court weighed in.
The law allows local and state police officers to arrest a person they suspect on being in Texas without authorization and empowers local judges to order a migrant to return to Mexico, regardless of the person’s nationality.
The extension came less than 24 hours after the state of Texas filed its response to the high court after the Biden administration and a coalition of immigrant and civil rights groups asked that the law be paused as the case winds its way through the courts.
Senate Bill 4 passed late last year by the Texas Legislature and was initially scheduled to go into effect March 5. It was temporarily blocked on Feb. 29 by U.S. District Judge David Ezra, who ruled the law is likely unconstitutional because the federal government has jurisdiction over immigration matters.
The state swiftly appealed Ezra’s ruling to the Fifth Court of Appeals, which has scheduled oral arguments in the case for early April. The issue before the U.S. Supreme Court is whether to allow the law to go into effect pending the resolution of the case.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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