Court clears way for Texas to enforce migrant arrest law

May 29 (Reuters) – A federal appeals court on Friday cleared the way for Texas authorities to enforce key parts of a law that would allow state officials to ​arrest and deport people suspected of having illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.

A ‌2-1 panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in an order an injunction a federal judge had issued on May 14 in a class-action lawsuit filed by civil ​rights advocates on behalf of thousands of people who could be subject to ​the law’s provisions.

Austin-based U.S. District Judge David Ezra had issued the ⁠injunction after concluding the state law improperly challenged the federal government’s long-held power to ​control immigration, naturalization and deportations.

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for a ​seat in the U.S. Senate, quickly appealed, leading to Friday’s order.

The groups representing the plaintiffs — the American Civil Liberties Union, its Texas affiliate and the Texas Civil Rights Project — in a joint statement ​called Friday’s ruling disappointing and said they “will continue to fight against this abhorrent and ​blatantly illegal law.”

Paxton’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit had been filed to ‌prevent ⁠parts of the 2023 law from taking effect, after the appeals court in April overturned an earlier injunction issued during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration that had prevented the Republican-backed measure known as SB 4 from being enforced.

Republican President Donald Trump’s administration had dropped a ​case the Biden administration ​brought challenging the ⁠law. Immigrant-rights groups that had also sued pressed on, but the 5th Circuit on a 10-7 vote concluded the organizations lacked legal ​standing to pursue their case.

The new ACLU-backed lawsuit sought to ​address that ⁠issue by instead suing on behalf of non-citizens who could be subject to four key provisions of the law.

Those provisions include ones that make it a state crime for someone to ⁠reenter ​the U.S. after deportation, even if they have federal ​permission to do so or have since obtained a green card, and that give magistrate judges in Texas ​the power to issue deportation orders.