A Texas law that would allow the state to arrest and deport illegal immigrants who wrongfully enter the U.S. will remain on hold after an appeals court extended its stay on the law in an order on Wednesday.
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that Senate Bill 4 should remain on hold, more than a week after it first temporarily halted the law from taking effect.
“For nearly 150 years, the Supreme Court has held that the power to control immigration — the entry, admission, and removal of noncitizens—is exclusively a federal power,” Judge Priscilla Richman wrote for the majority.
The law would allow police to arrest illegal immigrants who are suspected of illegally crossing the border and would impose criminal penalties. The measure would also give state judges the authority to order people to be deported to Mexico.
The appeals court is set to hold another hearing on April 3.
The law has been the subject of a legal back-and-forth after the Biden administration sued to block the measure. A federal judge first blocked the law in response to the legal challenge, but the appeals court later ruled that it could take effect on March 10 if the Supreme Court declined to intervene, as the appeals court delayed a decision on whether to impose a more permanent block.
The Supreme Court first put the law on hold but then said it would allow the measure to take effect, with the appeals court expected to act quickly on the case.
The latest order comes one week after more than 100 migrants attempted to enter the country at once, including several men who attacked U.S. National Guard members amid the chaos.
Video of the incident published by the New York Post shows dozens of men breaking through razor-wire fencing that the state of Texas had installed before racing forward to overwhelm Texas National Guard members. However, the group was ultimately thwarted by a section of border wall.
The White House sought to shift the blame to Republicans on Friday when pressed on the incident. Fox News’s Peter Doocy asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre what President Biden believes should happen to “adult men who are assaulting and overpowering U.S. National Guardsmen.”
“They were able to do their job even though Republicans, Governor Abbott in particular, has made it difficult for them,” Jean-Pierre said during the press briefing on Friday. “You have a governor, Governor Abbott, who is politicizing it.”
Abbott spokesman Andrew Mahaleris accused the Biden administration of performing “mental gymnastics” on the border crisis, saying in a statement to Fox News that the recent incident at the border was “the direct result of the unsustainable chaos President Biden has unleashed on the border.”
“Texas will continue to utilize every tool and strategy to deter and repel illegal crossings as President Biden’s dangerous open border policies encourage migrants from over 150 countries to make unsafe and illegal crossings between ports of entry,” he added.