The Justice Department warned Texas on Thursday that it plans to sue over a new state law that would allow local police to make immigration arrests, the latest flash point in political and policy battles over border policy and illegal immigration, the Washington Post reports. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last week signed the measure that authorizes local and state police to arrest undocumented immigrants and empowers state judges to order such people removed from the U.S. Abbott said the statute will “help stop the tidal wave of illegal entry into Texas, add additional funding to build more border wall and crack down on human smuggling.” Federal courts, however, have long held that immigration enforcement is the responsibility of the federal government, not state or local authorities. In a letter to Abbott, senior Justice Department official Brian Boynton said that if Texas implements the law when it is due to take effect in March, doing so would violate the Constitution.
Because the law “is unconstitutional and will disrupt the federal government’s operations, we request that Texas forbear in its enforcement,” Boynton wrote. He said the department “intends to file suit to enjoin the enforcement ... unless Texas agrees to refrain from enforcing the law. The United States is committed to both securing the border and ensuring the processing of noncitizens." The Texas law, Boynton said, “is contrary to these goals.” He gave Texas a deadline of Wednesday to respond to the warning. Civil rights groups filed their own suit challenging the Texas law last week. The issue shows the degree to which immigration is increasingly a subject of debate within border states, which are overwhelmed with new arrivals, as well as states much farther north, where busloads of migrants have arrived needing assistance. Republicans, Abbott in particular, have faulted the Biden administration for the influx of migrants and claim the new law is necessary to do what the federal government has not. “President Biden has repeatedly refused to enforce federal immigration laws already on the books and do his job to secure the border,” Abbott said this month, vowing to take the fight “all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.”