On Monday, Texas' Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed into law SB 4, which effectively makes illegal entry into Texas a state-level crime. This would allow enforcement by Texas state police and local law enforcement.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas signed into law Monday a bill that makes entering Texas illegally a state crime, an extraordinary step in the hard-fought legal battle between the state and the federal government over efforts to curtail illegal immigration.

The measure, SB 4, grants local law enforcement the power to arrest migrants and judges the ability to issue orders to remove them to Mexico. It has sent ripples of fear throughout the Latino community in Texas, which makes up 40% of the state’s population, and was condemned by civil rights organizations and immigration advocacy groups after the Texas legislature passed it last month.  

The law is expected to take effect in March.

Constitutional objections are already being raised by Texas Democrats; immigration is an issue that, under the Constitution, is enforced by the federal government, but it is something of an understatement to note that, for the last few years, such enforcement has been inefficient and in some locations non-existent. Since President Biden took office, there have been 7.5 million illegal immigrant "encounters" nationwide, 6.2 million encounters at the Southwest border, and 1.7 million known "gotaways."

Democratic House members have said the bill oversteps the federal government’s powers and echoes Arizona’s immigration status provision in what opponents have dubbed the “show me your papers” law. The law was mostly rejected by the US Supreme Court in 2012 when it upheld that the federal government sets immigration policy and laws.

Texas Republicans are confident the new law will pass muster.

The Republican author of the Texas bill has maintained that the measure is constitutional.  

Kevin F. Lawrence, the executive director of Texas Municipal Police Association, told CNN in a statement that “SB 4, at least to some measure, would give local law enforcement better tools to work with.”  

There will almost certainly be a court challenge. Three Texas county executives wrote to President Biden last month, seeking to have him prevent enforcement of SB 4; the Constitution does not allow the president any power to interfere with local law enforcement except when local law enforcement and the statutes that authorize it violate federal law or the Constitution, which would presumably take a court case to decide.

Three top county executives in Texas penned a letter to President Joe Biden late last month, urging him to stop SB 4 from going into effect, citing concerns the measure is unconstitutional and could make communities less safe. The county executives lead El Paso, Harris (home to Houston) and Travis (home to Austin) counties, which represent nearly a quarter of the state’s population.  

Governor Abbott has previously authorized state authorities to arrest illegal aliens in Texas, in an attempt to stem the tide of illegal immigrants from points south. 

Abbott has also endorsed former President Donald Trump, who also vocally supports stricter border enforcement, for the 2024 Presidential election.

Congressional Democrats continue to assert that the border is "under control."