The United States Supreme Court extends its blockade of the Texas anti-immigrant law

The Supreme Court has extended its blockade of the toughest anti-immigrant in the United States at the last minute.

Conservative Judge Samuel Alito published this Monday afternoon, just minutes before the deadline expired, an order that lengthens the evaluation process of the controversial rule, which allows local security agencies to request papers from anyone suspected of having arrived to the country irregularly.

The most controversial aspect of the law, known as SB4, is that it put in place a system that allows state authorities to initiate the expulsion of people to Mexico, a power exclusive to the Federal Government until now.

Alito's decision has not set a new deadline for SB4 to take effect.

At the beginning of this month, the Constitutional Court stopped the entry into force of the controversial rule, which contemplates penalties of up to 20 years in prison for those who cross the border irregularly.

Judge Alito announced the block on March 4, hours before the law took effect.

It was a temporary decision that was intended to give the robes time to determine next steps.

The judge extended the deadline to March 13 and then intervened again to push the end to Monday, March 18.

The law was going to go into effect at 4:00 p.m. (Texas time) to be applied in all 254 counties if the Supreme Court did not rule.

Alito's motion came just minutes before the law became valid.

SB4 was signed into law in December by Governor Greg Abbott, who champions a tough crusade against illegal immigration.

The president signed the law in the Rio Grande Valley area, an area on the border that has registered a sharp increase in the migratory flow.

That month he broke all records for the number of arrests.

The Homeland Security authorities then assured that around 5,000 people were processed daily at the border.

Republicans say some 3.3 million people have entered the United States under Biden.

The number of arrests decreased at the start of 2024.

A federal district judge has argued that the law signed by Abbott is unconstitutional.

The magistrate assured that the norm gives state authorities powers to regulate migration that only correspond to the federal Executive.

The Texas prosecutor appealed the decision and defended himself by ensuring that SB4 imitates federal laws to “address the ongoing crisis at the border.”

SB4 allows local police to arrest anyone virtually anywhere, except for schools, churches, and hospitals and health centers.

The Fifth Circuit of Appeals, however, ruled in favor of the Texas Government.

The panel of judges gave the federal government seven days to appeal its decision.

The appeal came soon.

It surprises no one that the fate of this law will be settled in Washington within the walls of the Supreme Court.

Governor Abbott himself announced it as soon as a district judge considered it unconstitutional.

The Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to hear the case considering that SB4 could alter “the

that has existed between the United States and the States in the context of immigration for almost 150 years.”

In its lawsuit, President Biden's Administration draws similarities between this and another famous anti-immigrant law, SB1070, enacted by Arizona in 2010.

This allowed local security forces to ask for papers from almost anyone suspected of having entered the country illegally.

The rule, approved by a Republican-controlled Legislature, was in the courts for two years.

In June 2012, the Supreme Court invalidated several aspects of the rule and allowed others to remain in force.

Among what he ruled was that only the federal government has the power to make laws against illegal immigration.

SB4 may not have gone into effect, but the text of the law has already made migrant communities put their guard up.

The consular network of Mexico in Texas, made up of eleven offices in several cities, has started information sessions this week to learn about the potential scope of the regulations.

The Mexican Government has already categorically rejected the law, considering it to be used to persecute people of color.

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