Texas Immigration Law SB4 Halted by Federal Judge Days Before Implementation

A Texas law known as Senate Bill 4, which would have authorized state and local police to arrest individuals suspected of illegal border crossings and mandate their removal to Mexico, has been blocked by a federal judge just one day before its scheduled enactment. U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra, a Reagan appointee, granted a preliminary injunction against the legislation, ruling that it unconstitutionally encroaches on the federal government's exclusive authority over immigration policy. The lawsuit was filed by civil rights groups, including the ACLU, who argued the law lacked defenses for legally present immigrants and would encourage racial profiling. Judge Ezra emphasized that individual states cannot supersede national immigration powers. This legal victory follows a previous dismissal of a different challenge by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on procedural grounds. Texas officials had defended the bill as a necessary measure to combat border invasions, despite recent decreases in crossing numbers. The decision reaffirms that immigration enforcement remains a federal jurisdiction, preventing Texas from establishing its own parallel immigration criminal code.