From the Washington Post: Appeals court again blocks Texas from arresting and deporting migrants

Checks and balances and federalism at work here.

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A federal appeals court has again blocked a law that makes it a state crime for migrants to illegally cross the border into Texas, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority allowed the law to take effect while challenges to it continue through the court system.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit blocked enforcement of the law, known as S.B. 4, ahead of oral arguments scheduled for Wednesday morning.

Two justices in the Supreme Court majority had said the high court may again consider intervening after the 5th Circuit weighs the merits of the case. Their statement appeared to have an immediate effect, as the lower court quickly scheduled a hearing and later moved to block the law from implementation.

The law makes it a state crime for migrants to illegally cross the border and allows Texas officials to deport undocumented individuals, though Mexico said Tuesday that it would not accept anyone sent back by the state and condemned the law as “encouraging the separation of families, discrimination and racial profiling that violate the human rights of the migrant community.”

The statute was passed last year amid a record surge in border crossings, as part of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s push to expand the state’s role in immigration enforcement — historically part of the federal government’s control over international borders.