‘Horrific’: US Supreme court allows Texas to detain, deport migrants
Al Jazeera
Top court allows ‘one of the most extreme anti-immigration laws’ to take effect, despite continued legal challenges.
The United States Supreme Court has lifted a pause on a controversial law that allows Texas state authorities to detain and deport migrants and asylum seekers, a measure critics have dubbed the “show me your papers” law.
The top court on Tuesday voted six to three to allow the law, Texas Senate Bill 4 (SB4), to go immediately into effect.
Legal scholars, however, have argued that the law subverts the federal government’s constitutional authority to carry out immigration enforcement.
Rights groups have also warned it threatens to increase racial profiling and imperil the rights of asylum seekers. The American Civil Liberties Union, for instance, called SB4 “one of the most extreme anti-immigrant laws ever passed by any state legislature” in the US.
Tuesday’s Supreme Court action does not weigh the merits of the law, which continues to be challenged in lower courts. It instead vacates a lower court ruling that paused the law from going into effect.
