The Supreme Court on Monday temporarily froze enforcement of Texas’ controversial immigration law that allows state law enforcement to arrest and detain people they suspect of entering the country illegally.
Justice Samuel Alito issued the administrative hold, which will block the law from taking effect until March 13. That temporary pause will give the court additional time to review the case but does not necessarily signal which way the court is leaning. (Alito oversees the federal circuit that handled the case.)
The Biden administration and several immigration groups filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court hours earlier asking the justices to block enforcement of the law.
Without intervention, the law would have gone into effect on the morning of March 10. The Justice Department said that would “profoundly” alter the status quo “that has existed between the United States and the States in the context of immigration for almost 150 years.”
Senate Bill 4, signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in December, immediately raised concerns among immigration advocates of increased racial profiling as well as detentions and attempted deportations by state authorities in Texas, where Latinos represent 40% of the population.
Last week, a federal judge in Austin, Texas, had blocked the state government from implementing the law.
“If allowed to proceed, SB 4 could open the door to each state passing its own version of immigration laws,” Judge David Alan Ezra wrote.
A federal appeals court over the weekend granted a temporary stay of the lower court’s decision and said the law would take effect later this week if the Supreme Court did not act.
Immigration enforcement is typically a federal responsibility, but some border states have increasingly sought to take action amid a surge in migrants in recent years. On Monday, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, vetoed a bill advanced by Republicans in the state legislature that would have allowed police to arrest migrants.
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.