Trump administration drops challenge to Texas law targeting people who illegally cross the border

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The Trump administration late Tuesday moved to drop the federal government’s legal challenge to the Texas immigration law that allows local police to arrest people they suspect crossed the Texas-Mexico border illegally.

The law, known as Senate Bill 4, will continue to be challenged by El Paso County and two immigrant rights groups — Austin-based American Gateways and El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center — who are represented by Texas Civil Rights Project lawyers.

In a court filing, the U.S. Department of Justice told U.S. District Judge David Ezra that it is voluntarily dropping its legal challenge.

The Texas Legislature approved the law in 2023, then the Biden administration filed a lawsuit against it. Ezra had blocked the law from going into effect, but Texas appealed. The appeals court sent the case back to Ezra’s court, where it remains pending.

The law would make it a state crime to cross the Texas-Mexico border between ports of entry. If a police officer believes they have evidence that a person illegally crossed the Rio Grande, that person could be charged with a Class B misdemeanor, which carries a punishment of up to six months in jail. For subsequent offenses, the person could be charged with a second-degree felony and face up to 20 years in prison.

If the migrant is convicted and has served their sentence, a judge must order police to transport them to a port of entry for removal from the country. A judge could drop the charges if a migrant agrees to return to Mexico, and police could turn over migrant families to Border Patrol agents to avoid separating children from their parents instead of arresting them.

Immigration advocacy organizations say the law encroaches on the federal government’s sole authority over immigration and will lead to racial profiling by police. When Texas lawmakers proposed the legislation, they argued the state needed to step in because the federal government under President Biden wasn’t doing enough to stop illegal immigration.

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