Supreme Court temporarily suspends controversial Texas immigration law

(CNN Spanish) –– The United States Supreme Court has temporarily suspended enforcement of Texas’ controversial immigration law, which allows state authorities to arrest and detain people suspected of entering the country illegally.

Justice Samuel Alito issued an administrative suspension, which will block the measure’s entry into force until March 13. This temporary adjournment will give the court additional time to review the case report, although it does not necessarily indicate which way the court leans on the underlying application.

US Supreme Court. Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Hours earlier, the Biden administration and several immigrant advocacy groups filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court, asking justices to block the law’s application.

Without the Supreme Court’s intervention, the controversial law would have come into force on the morning of March 10. The Justice Department warned in its request that the move would “seriously alter the position that has existed between the United States and the states with respect to immigration for nearly 150 years.”

The law, called SB4, was signed into law last December by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. It immediately raised concerns among immigration advocates about the potential for increased racial profiling, as well as arrests and deportation efforts by state authorities in Texas, where Latinos make up 40% of the population.

Immigrants wait by a wire fence after crossing the Rio Grande River from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on February 1, in El Paso, Texas. (Credit: John Moore/Getty Images)

Last week, a federal judge in Austin, Texas blocked the law from taking effect in the state.

“If granted a stay, SB4 could open the door for each state to pass its own version of immigration laws,” wrote Judge David Allen Ezra.

Over the weekend, a federal appeals court granted a temporary stay on the lower court’s decision and said the law would go into effect later this week if the Supreme Court does not act on it.