See How Texas is Testing the Limits of State-Run Border Control

A new Texas law that would allow state and local police to arrest migrants who have entered the state without authorization briefly went into effect this week before it was halted by a federal appeals court.

The law would essentially expand Gov. Greg Abbott’s operation in Eagle Pass to the entire state. The Biden administration has said the law would subvert the federal government’s authority to set and enforce border policy.

The current federal policy allows Customs and Border Protection officers to process and detain migrants who wish to seek asylum in the United States. In many cases, the agency can admit them into the country with a notice to later appear in court, where a judge will determine whether they can stay.

Migrants caught on the border in some parts of Eagle Pass, however, can be arrested for trespassing and jailed, whether or not they are seeking asylum.

The outcome for migrants arrested under the new state law, known as Senate Bill 4, would be similar, but those arrests could eventually lead to a deportation order from a state court. The ongoing court battle over the law is just one of several legal standoffs between Texas and the Biden administration, with most centering around Eagle Pass.

Last summer, the Department of Justice sued Texas over a barrier made up of buoys that the state had installed in the middle of the Rio Grande, just south of Shelby Park. Vanita Gupta, the former associate attorney general, said in a statement at the time that the state had “flouted federal law” by installing the barrier and that it “presents humanitarian concerns.”

The concertina wires have been the subject of another legal battle. The state had run concertina wire along certain sections of the border, and the federal authorities had repeatedly cut or moved it before being barred from the area.

A federal appeals court ruled last year that the Border Patrol agents could no longer cut or move the wire unless there were a medical emergency. The Biden administration asked the Supreme Court in January to intervene, and noted that the state had installed more fencing and concertina wire in a briefing filed to the court after the state had taken control of the area.

During a tour of Eagle Pass this month, Lt. Christopher Olivarez, a spokesman for the state’s Public Safety Department, pointed out that the state had also added razor wire, which is sharper and more dangerous than concertina wire, to some fences.

The Supreme Court lifted the order on Jan. 22, allowing federal border patrol officers to continue moving or removing the wire. By that time, however, the federal officers were no longer allowed in the area.