The Texas legislature approved the new law, permitting state judges to deport people — even while seeking asylum — last week. A group of judges have sent a letter urging President Joe Biden to intervene.
They ask the White House block the law, arguing that the bill "is as unprecedented as Texas trying to declare its own wars."
"We are writing to express our profound concern over legislation recently passed by the Texas legislature that makes local communities less safe, interferes with federal immigration enforcement, threatens our relationships with other nations and does not get us any closer to sound immigration policy," the letter reads.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo posted the entirety of the letter on X.
The letter went on to cite the 2012 Supreme Court Case, Arizona v. United States as precedent. Arizona determined that state immigration enforcement can't be at odds with federal immigration law.
The Texas House of Representatives approved the law last week. The legislation earmarks more than $1.5 billion to build border barriers and makes it a crime to illegally cross the Texas-Mexico border.
Gov. Abbott celebrated the bill in a post on X, saying "Texas continues to hold the line amid President Biden's border crisis."
In a separate post, he congratulated state Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock) and Rep. David Spiller (R-Jacksboro) on what he called "historic progress," on border security.
"I look forward to signing Senate Bill 4, which creates penalties for illegal entry into Texas and authorizes the removal of illegal immigrants apprehended at the border," Abbott said in a statement.
Just so everyone understands, the chief executives of the 254 Texas counties are called County Judges, who, along with four County Commissioners, perform the executive function for each County. They are not part of the Judical branch of state government. There is some history as to why they are called judges. I live in Texas