The Supreme Court has allowed Texas to enforce one of the toughest immigration laws enacted by any US state in recent memory.

The measure allows police to arrest and prosecute those suspected of illegally crossing the US-Mexican border.

The Biden administration has challenged the law, calling it unconstitutional.

Crossing the US border illegally is already a federal crime, but violations are usually handled as civil cases by the immigration court system.

One reason the Texas law, SB4, is so controversial is because courts have previously ruled that only the federal government can enforce the country’s immigration laws, not individual US states.

  • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Well, would allowing SB4 to stand not Grant control of the federal border to individual states? Each border state could then set their own laws defining who gets to enter and leave?

    • xmunk
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      9 months ago

      Yea, including the lib’ruhl ones - it’s why I expect the Supreme Court might end up striking down the law.

      Remember, American conservatives don’t like states rights - they want their bullshit laws nation wide. See their advocacy for national abortion bans after convincing the Supreme Court that abortion legality wasn’t a power the federal government could determine.

    • quindraco@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      They would stack with Federal laws, but yes. I.e. you could be arrested by the Feds for breaking Federal law or separately the state for breaking state law.

      Example consequences include the Feds granting someone asylum who nonetheless gets deported by the state and, well, Texas deporting people from blue states because they’ve decided they don’t like those people.