In an ideological 6-3 split, U.S. Supreme Court conservatives had their way in allowing Texas to continue to arrest and deport illegal aliens while the Texas law is being challenged in lower courts.
It is a significant ruling because, until now, immigration enforcement has been thought of as a responsibility of the federal government only. Texas tried to create a loophole with S.B.4, which makes illegal entry a state law, which it can enforce.
[An appeals court immediately blocked the Supreme Court order in light of an appeals court hearing Wednesday.]
The Left was predictably outraged that a state would enforce immigration law, because it has used a “hands off” philosophy to justify Sanctuary Cities non cooperation with ICE. (There is a difference between nonenforcement and non cooperation. No one asks Sanctuary Cities to enforce the law. The argument is those cities’ noncooperation hinders enforcement.)
The Mexican government, in a huff, said it would not accept the return of its nationals because the law encourages “the separation of families, discrimination, and racial profiling.” That opinion is like a tortilla with no flour. S.B.4 does not target Mexicans, it targets illegal border crossers. Is Mexico saying all border jumpers are Mexican? Shame, shame on them.
Mexico blows hot and cold on cooperating with its northern neighbor and has suborned U.S. law by issuing travel papers to serve as “documents.” However, under Mexican law, “All foreigners, regardless of their nationality, are required to present a valid and not expired passport or travel document when entering Mexico.”
Passport, si.
Is that racist, too?
One illustration of the Supreme Court’s reversal: in 2012, it knocked down most of an Arizona law that sought to do the same thing as Texas’ law.
In each case, the state said it acted because the federal government did not. Is the Supreme Court preparing the ground for a validation of states’ rights?
The Biden Administration, which is responsible for what it now admits is a crisis at the border, fights Texas’ attempt to secure the border, instead of thanking it. That is very curious and makes one wonder how serious Biden is about fixing our sieve border.
Speaking for the Administration, spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre cranked out the creaky trope that the border enforcement will “make communities in Texas less safe.” In the same way locking up rapists makes women less safe?
Let Texas decide that. Don’t mess with Texas, as they say.
While immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, I have never understood why states could not voluntarily enforce that law, as they do arson, bank robbery, counterfeiting, and smuggling, which are federal crimes.
They are state crimes, too, you say?
So is illegal entry, under Texas’ S.B.4.
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