Federal Appeals Court Allows Texas to Enforce Migrant Arrest Law

A federal appeals court on Friday cleared Texas to enforce Senate Bill 4, allowing state police to arrest people suspected of crossing the border illegally. The order came from a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which sided with Texas over a lower court injunction that had blocked sections of the law, FOX 7 Austin reported.

One reactivated provision treats reentry into the U.S. as a state offense even for people now holding green cards or other lawful federal status. Another grants state magistrates authority to issue removal orders, with a separate offense for refusing to obey them.

A fourth requires those magistrates to continue prosecution even when a defendant has a pending federal immigration case, according to the outlet. The Friday ruling paused a May 14 preliminary injunction from U.S. District Court Judge David Alan Ezra, who had sided with two unnamed Honduran immigrants leading a class-action suit against SB 4, Courthouse News Service reported.

Ezra’s 78-page opinion determined the plaintiffs faced likely arrest and possible removal once the reentry provisions took force. His order blocked only those reentry sections, allowing the rest of the statute to begin enforcement May 15.

Reactions Texas Gov.

Greg Abbott praised the appeals court’s ruling in a post to X, framing it as a win for border security. “We will keep fighting in the courts, working with President Trump, and doing everything necessary to secure our border and protect Texans,” Abbott wrote on the platform.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the national ACLU and the Texas Civil Rights Project filed the May 4 class-action suit that produced Ezra’s now-stayed order, contending the law strips the federal government of its exclusive authority over immigration enforcement, according to a press release from the ACLU of Texas.

The coalition has described SB 4 as among the harshest immigration statutes any state legislature has enacted.