Overview
- A U.S. district judge provisionally certified a class and issued a preliminary injunction on May 14 blocking four central parts of S.B. 4, keeping those provisions from taking effect while the case moves through the courts.
- The order bars Texas from enforcing the expanded reentry crime that would apply even to people with federal permission or new lawful status, the power for state magistrates to issue deportation orders, the crime for failing to follow magistrate removal orders, and a rule forcing magistrates to continue prosecutions despite pending federal immigration cases.
- The lawsuit was filed by the ACLU of Texas and the Texas Civil Rights Project on behalf of immigrants including people with lawful status or pending federal immigration claims who say the law would expose them to wrongful arrest and deportation and increase racial profiling.
- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has appealed the injunction and asked appellate judges to let S.B. 4 operate during the appeal, arguing the law defends Texas sovereignty and complements federal immigration goals.
- Legal experts and the judge warned that allowing the law to stand could let each state adopt different immigration rules, creating a patchwork that would undercut the federal government’s exclusive role and could change how border enforcement affects everyday communities.