EAGLE PASS, TEXAS - DECEMBER 19: Salvadorian immigrant Olga, 23, is overcome with relief after reaching the American side of the U.S.-Mexico border on December 19, 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas. She said her journey had taken one month, with the entirety of Mexico being the most difficult part. She hopes to be able to follow asylum claims and live in Los Angeles with family members already there. A major surge of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to seek political asylum has overwhelmed U.S.
Since March 2021, the governor has implemented various tactics, including sending state troopers and the National Guard to different parts of the state’s 1,200-mile border with Mexico; arresting migrants and charging them with trespassing; erecting barriers on land and water; and most recently, blocking U.S. Border Patrol agents from entering a city park in Eagle Pass and enclosing the area with concertina wire.
Both sides have filed their arguments in court, but during Thursday’s hearing, they will make their arguments to U.S. District Judge David Ezra.The DOJ argues that SB 4 interferes with federal law, and even if the Texas law attempts to mirror federal law, it’s still problematic because it doesn’t provide migrants access to the asylum process and could affect diplomatic relations with Mexico — one of the country’s largest trading partners.
If the law isn’t stopped, the DOJ argues, it also could inspire other states to pass their own state immigration laws. “Immigration enforcement involves a sensitive balancing of United States’ interests in national security and foreign relations, including the reciprocal treatment of U.S. citizens abroad,” the DOJ lawyers wrote. “And allowing each State to arrest, detain, prosecute, and remove foreign nationals would fundamentally undermine that delicate balance.”
The case stemmed from a 2007 traffic stop, when deputies pulled over a driver who had picked up some men from a church that was being used as a staging area for day laborers. After letting the driver go, the deputies detained Manuel de Jesús Ortega Melendres — a Mexican citizen riding in the vehicle who had a tourist visa that he showed to the deputies — and turned him over to federal immigration authorities. After being held for hours, immigration agents let him go.
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