Supreme Court again extends order blocking Texas law allowing police to arrest migrants

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Monday again extended an order blocking Texas from enforcing a new law that gives the state a role in arresting and deporting immigrants.

Alito’s last-minute order, the third time the high court stepped in to pause enforcement of the law known as Senate Bill 4, came around 4 p.m., when a previous order blocking SB 4 was to end.

The one-page order from Alito – who handles emergency petitions out of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi – included no deadline, saying only that the delay in enforcing SB 4 had been extended “pending further order” of either Alito or the court.

The law, originally set to take effect March 5, was challenged by the U.S. Justice Department and found to be unconstitutional in February by a federal judge in Austin. Texas appealed, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave Texas permission to enforce SB 4 while it considered the lower-court ruling.

The Biden administration and civil rights groups asked the Supreme Court to halt enforcement of the law until its constitutionality could be determined, leading to a series of orders from Alito, including Monday’s order that put the law under an indefinite pause.

The Justice Department argued that the law violates the Constitution because it undermines the federal government’s authority over immigration enforcement and foreign policy.

Gov. Greg Abbott and other Texas officials have defended the measure, saying it’s a necessary response to an “invasion” of undocumented migrants crossing into Texas that the Biden administration has failed to stop.

Last month, U.S. District Judge David Ezra sided with the Biden administration in a ruling that called SB 4 “patently unconstitutional” based on a Supreme Court ruling that struck down a similar Arizona law in 2012.