Harsh Texas Immigration Law Dealt Blow by Appeals Court

A federal appellate court on Tuesday night ruled to continue to block a Texas immigration law that authorizes state and local authorities to arrest and deport undocumented migrants.

The decision comes after a legal whiplash over Senate Bill 4 (S.B.4), which was briefly allowed to take effect by the U.S. Supreme Court, then paused again by the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel, while its constitutionality is still up for debate.

The law—which was signed in December by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and faces legal challenges from the Biden administration and the ACLU—allows officers to arrest anyone they believe entered Texas illegally. It also would allow state judges to deport those people back to Mexico and make illegal crossing a Class B misdemeanor, which carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail.

Read more at The Daily Beast.