U.S. Appeals Court puts on hold Texas controversial law policing immigration

HOUSTON, March 20 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. federal appeals court on Tuesday night put on hold a highly controversial Texas law allowing police to arrest migrants believed to have entered the United States illegally hours after the conservative majority Supreme Court allowed it to take effect.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the order ahead of oral arguments before the court Wednesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected an emergency request by the Biden administration, allowing Texas to temporally enforce its controversial immigration law while litigation continues in lower courts.

"The court gives a green light to a law that will upend the longstanding federal-state balance of power and sow chaos," liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissenting opinion.

However, the Supreme Court didn't address whether the state law that allows Texas police to arrest migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally is constitutional.

Mexico, which is not responsible for accepting deportations of anyone besides Mexican citizens, said it would not "under any circumstances" accept the return of migrants from Texas, The Associated Press reported.

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the Texas law "will not only make communities in Texas less safe, it will also burden law enforcement and sow chaos and confusion at our southern border."

The Biden administration had argued that immigration enforcement is solely within the federal government's jurisdiction.

Immigrant rights groups filed a lawsuit against the Texas law one day after Abbott signed the bill in December.

According to the plaintiffs, the bill violates the federal constitution since Congress has given the federal government sole authority over immigration enforcement. It will also prevent immigrants from requesting asylum in the country, a civil right they have regardless of how they enter the United States.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Texas Civil Rights Project filed the lawsuit in an Austin federal court on behalf of El Paso County, the largest border county in Texas, as well as two other immigrant rights organizations, the El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and Austin-based American Gateways.