El Paso, immigrant rights groups sue Texas over law allowing migrants' arrest, removal

Less than 24 hours after Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a security package creating new criminal penalties for illegally crossing the Texas-Mexico border, the ACLU of Texas on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop Senate Bill 4, which would allow state law enforcement officers to arrest, detain and deport those suspected of illegally entering the country.

Calling it a "novel system" in their filing in U.S. District Court in Austin, the ACLU, which is representing El Paso County and two migrant advocacy organizations, said the bill's broad and overarching provisions usurp federal authority and endanger migrant and Hispanic communities.

“We’re suing to block one of the most extreme anti-immigrant bills in the country,” said Adriana Piñon, legal director of the ACLU of Texas, in a statement Tuesday. “The bill overrides bedrock constitutional principles and flouts federal immigration law while harming Texans, in particular Brown and Black communities."

In a statement Tuesday to the American-Statesman, Abbott laid blame for the state's foray into immigration law at the feet of President Joe Biden, saying Texas has the authority to introduce border security measures in the face of federal inaction.

"Texas will take this fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary to protect Texans from President Biden's dangerous open border policies," Abbott said in his statement.

During a bill signing ceremony alongside an unfinished state border wall in Brownsville on Monday, Abbott said he believed SB 4, which is set to go into effect in March, would withstand a test in the courts.

The legislation authored by Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, creates a series of penalties for those suspected of coming into Texas other than through a legal international port of entry, ranging from a Class B misdemeanor to a second-degree felony. SB 4 also requires people accused of illegally crossing the state's southern border to accept a magistrate judge's order for removal or face a second-degree felony charge for noncompliance.

More: 1 day after Gov. Greg Abbott signs SB4, El Paso County files legal challenge

"We believe this law has been crafted in a way that can and should be upheld by the courts on its own without having to overturn the Arizona case," Abbott said, referencing a previous Supreme Court ruling based on actions in Arizona to influence immigration law. "That said, it does open up the possibility for the Supreme Court to reconsider the Arizona case."

In the suit filed against the Texas Department of Public Safety, the ACLU said SB 4 is "patently illegal" and violates "the federal government’s exclusive immigration powers and the sensitive foreign policy implications of these powers."

The new Texas law takes "control over immigration from the federal government" and deprives immigrants of their rights under federal law, according to the complaint. The ACLU is asking the court to find SB 4 unconstitutional before it takes effect March 5.

After Abbott's news conference Monday, in which he also signed off on a $1.54 billion expenditure for state border wall construction and an increase in penalties for human smuggling, some members of Texas' U.S. House Delegation and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus sent a letter to the U.S. Justice Department asking Attorney General Merrick Garland to assert his agency's authority over immigration and foreign policy to "stop this unconstitutional and dangerous legislation from going into effect."

"This bill is set to be the most extreme anti-immigrant state bill in the United States; it is clearly preempted by federal law and when it goes into effect will likely result in racial profiling, significant due process violations, and unlawful arrests of citizens, lawful permanent residents, and others," the coalition, led by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, wrote Monday.

Abbott also received pushback from Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador after the governor said Monday that the border "goes both ways," touting the Republican-dominated Legislature's success in advancing the new border-crossing penalties.

"Mexico can stop all of this," Abbott said. "But Mexico actually is a cause of part of this, why is Mexico allowing so many illegal immigrants into their country, and then fast-tracking them to the state of Texas?"

On Tuesday, López Obrador called the Texas legislation an effort to "win popularity" with the "inhumane" increase in border-crossing penalties and removal provisions included in SB 4, vowing to join the challenge against the new law.

“The foreign ministry is already working on the process to challenge this law,” López Obrador said.

USA Today reporter Lauren Villagran contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: ACLU sues Texas over SB 4, which allows migrants' arrest, deportation