The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted its temporary block on Senate Bill 4, allowing Texas to enforce the law that makes unauthorized border crossing a state crime, giving local law enforcement the power to arrest and potentially deport people who cross the border without authorization.
An unsigned order by the highest court allows the law to take effect at least until the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals hears further arguments. The next hearing for the New Orleans-based appellate court is April 3. The Supreme Court’s three Democratic-appointed justices dissented in Tuesday’s order.
Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, which brought the case challenging the Texas law, vowed to press forward with its efforts to block it.
“Everyone, regardless of race or immigration status, has the freedom to move and the freedom to thrive. We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to ensure this anti-immigrant and unconstitutional law is struck down for good, and Texans are protected from its inherent discrimination,” Jennifer Babaie, director of advocacy and legal services for Las Americas, said in a statement after the high court released its order.
The law’s author claims SB 4 is intended to target recent migrants, but police could arrest someone who is undocumented – the statute of limitations in Texas for misdemeanors is two years after the offense occurred.
An estimated 52,000 undocumented people, mostly Mexican nationals, live in El Paso, according to 2019 data analysis by the Migration Policy Institute. That doesn’t include undocumented people who are passing through as El Paso is a major entry point for migrants and asylum seekers into the United States. Nationally, people from Central America, and South and East Asia, made up the largest increases in unauthorized immigration from 2007 to 2021, according to the Pew Research Center.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office responded to questions about how it would prioritize and enforce SB 4 by directing El Paso Matters to a March 5 press conference.
“I don’t see a change in the way we do business, the way our patrol officers do business when they encounter undocumented immigrants. … We’re prohibited, and rightfully so, to racially profile so we cannot stop somebody because of the way they look and assume they might be an undocumented immigrant,” said outgoing Sheriff Richard Wiles said on March 5.
Typically when the Sheriff’s Office encounters undocumented people, officers will arrest and charge someone identified as a smuggler, but will turn anyone else over to federal authorities.
The Sheriff’s Office does not train nor have time to train officers in civil and criminal immigration law, Wiles said. Officers are busy responding to day-to-day issues, traffic situations and service calls from citizens. The county jails already house a high number of state inmates, he said.
By shifting the responsibility from federal to county police, officers are more liable to lawsuits if they enforce immigration law incorrectly, which then puts an unfair burden on El Paso taxpayers, he said. Furthermore, SB 4 erodes county officers’ relationship with the community and the ability to get undocumented victims of crime, or witnesses of crime, to speak with law enforcement, Wiles added.
Wiles said he cannot speak for DPS or the El Paso Police Department, which sometimes places arrested people in holding cells until they’re transferred to county jail.
“We will have a better understanding of SB4 once all litigation is final,” EPPD spokesperson Robert Gomez wrote in an email prior to the court’s decision. Police officials would not comment further.
Supporters of Annunciation House gather on Firday, Feb. 23 at Casa Vides to hear community and local leadership speak in support of the humanitarian organization. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
In late February, Marisa Limón Garza, executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, tied SB 4 to the Texas Attorney General Office’s ongoing lawsuit to shut down Annunciation House, an El Paso humanitarian organization that provides temporary shelter and care to migrants.
This story is developing and will be updated.
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