US court keeps Texas border security law on hold in win for Biden

U.S. appeals court blocks Texas law allowing state arrests of illegal border crossers, sparking legal battle with Biden administration.

A U.S. appeals court on March 27 kept on hold a Republican-backed Texas law that would let state authorities arrest and prosecute people suspected of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border — a statute that President Joe Biden's administration has argued intrudes on the authority of the federal government.

A panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 ruling denied a request by Texas to let the law take effect while the state's appeal of a judge's ruling blocking it plays out at the appellate court.

The law, formally called S.B. 4, has become a flashpoint in a broader battle between Texas and the Biden administration over border security and immigration. It would make it a state crime to illegally enter or re-enter Texas from a foreign country and would empower state judges to order that violators leave the United States, with prison sentences up to 20 years for those who refuse to comply.

The 5th Circuit panel's action was the latest of three rapid-fire rulings on the status of the law. The Supreme Court last week had let it take effect, but the 5th Circuit panel hours later restored U.S. District Judge David Ezra's February injunction blocking enforcement.

Judge Ezra, based in Austin, cited a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving an Arizona law that held that States cannot adopt immigration enforcement measures that clash with federal law.

The 5th Circuit panel is scheduled to hear arguments on the merits of the State's appeal on April 3.

The Biden administration's lawsuit, filed in January, argued that the measure violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law by interfering with the U.S. government's power to regulate immigration as well as running afoul of the 2012 Supreme Court decision.