(NewsReady.com) – Mexico has taken the unusual step of getting involved in an ongoing legal battle over a new Texas border security law. Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) wants to make it a criminal offense to enter his state illegally. Mexico, however, is determined to stop him.
Last December, Abbott signed SB4, a law that would criminalize illegally entering Texas under state law. However, it was then held up for months by multiple lawsuits, including from the Biden Administration, which argued that immigration enforcement is a strictly federal power. The battle went all the way to the Supreme Court, which imposed a permanent stay on the new law on March 18 and then, just one day later, removed the stay and ruled that Texas could start enforcing the law after all.
The fight isn’t over yet, though. On March 20, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked SB4 yet again, despite the Supreme Court ruling. Now, the Mexican government has joined in.
Mexico has opposed SB4 from the start and says it won’t accept any illegal immigrants deported from Texas. Now, the country is claiming the law could lead to harassment of Mexican citizens in Texas, even though it only applies to people who entered Texas illegally. On March 21, the Mexican government filed an amicus brief with the Fifth Circuit Court, arguing that SB4 discriminates against Mexican citizens and, by ordering the deportation of illegal immigrants back to Mexico, violates the country’s right to set its own immigration policies.
Despite the ferocious opposition SB4 has attracted, Governor Abbott says it’s necessary. He blames the Biden Administration’s failed policies for the scale of the illegal immigration problem and argues that if the federal government won’t protect Texas from Mexico’s cartels, which are heavily involved in people trafficking as well as smuggling drugs and guns across the border, the state has a right to defend itself.
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