The Patriot Post® · Whiplash in Texas

Texas passed a law in December making illegal border crossing a state crime, thus allowing state and local law enforcement to arrest illegal aliens and granting state judges authority to deport those aliens. Evidently not wanting any immigration laws enforced by anyone, Joe Biden’s Social Justice Department sued. U.S. District Court Judge David Ezra ruled in February that the Texas law, Senate Bill 4 or SB4, ran counter to federal law and the Constitution and put a stay on enforcement. The Fifth Circuit Court suspended that ruling while hearing the case. The Supreme Court initially reversed that, freezing enforcement, before lifting that freeze yesterday. The Fifth Circuit Court responded by reinstating its block last night so it could hear further arguments today.

And you thought the migrants chased by mounted Border Patrol agents were the only ones with whiplash.

What does all that mean? For now, Texas must sit by and watch as a flood of illegal aliens continues to pour across the border at Biden’s invitation while litigation continues.

Texas already lost its bid to install razor wire along popular crossing areas, though Republican Governor Greg Abbott continues to assert that his state has the legal right and obligation to its own citizens to stop the invasion at the border.

Enforcing the nation’s border is indeed the purview of the federal government. Yet what is a border state like Texas to do when the federal government, under the derelict “leadership” of Joe Biden and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, refuses to enforce that law?

As NBC News notes, “The Biden administration has argued that the law conflicts with federal immigration law and that states have no authority to legislate on the issue.” Indeed, Team Biden called it an “unprecedented intrusion into federal immigration enforcement.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor agreed, writing in her dissent that the federal government has “exclusive authority over entry and removal of noncitizens.”

Sotomayor added that the Supreme Court “invites further chaos and crisis,” so at least she admits there’s chaos and crisis at the border. Progress!

Kidding aside, we’re unpersuaded by the Left’s legal contortions. Texas did not, as numerous Democrat-dominated jurisdictions have, undermine federal law by making “sanctuaries.” Those cities and states thwart federal enforcement, albeit passively, by refusing to help enforce the law. Sometimes, that results in murdered Americans.

By contrast, Texas basically copied federal law and made it state law. There would be no conflict if the Biden administration were enforcing the law.

Bank robbery and kidnapping, for example, are against both federal and state law and may be prosecuted at either or both levels. Is the Biden administration really going to argue that a state prosecuting a robber or kidnapper is conflicting with the federal government? Of course not, though that’s because the administration doesn’t advocate robbery and kidnapping the way it does illegal entry.

Meanwhile, Mexican officials announced yesterday that no immigrants deported by Texas would be accepted there “under any circumstances,” including Mexican nationals. The cartels that traffic people and run Mexico can’t abide deportations that would discourage business. Since Mexico can’t admit that, officials couched it in terms of — wait for it — racism. They said the Texas law encouraged “the separation of families,” as well as “discrimination and racial profiling that violate the human rights of the migrant community.”

Marisa Limón Garza, executive director of Las Americas, which bills itself as an “immigration advocacy” group, concurs. “It’s painful to know that your own state is so afraid of the multi-racial democracy that is the majority of Texas,” she complained. “It’s already caused a great deal of psychological damage.”

Oh please. If nine million Scandinavians had illegally crossed the U.S. border in the last three years, Texas would seek to do something about that, too. The border crisis is not about race; it’s about the Rule of Law. We need a change of administration to fix that, but it would also help if the courts would stop aiding the Biden administration.