It is no longer just the border patrol (CBP) or the fearsome Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE): the expulsion of migrants can now be decided and executed by ordinary courts and by police officers in Texas, as decided by an appeals court that authorized the controversial SB4 law, with which undocumented status becomes a state crime

First modification: 04/25/2026 - 04:16

The Texas state police will be able to detain and expel from the country people they suspect are in the United States irregularly, according to a ruling issued this April 24 by a Court of Appeals.

The court this Friday allowed the entry into force of a law, known as SB4, that had been approved by the state legislature in 2023 and that was on pause after several human rights organizations filed lawsuits to stop it.

In the ruling, the court ruled that the organizations do not have the procedural right to bring this lawsuit.

Active criminalization

The law classifies irregular entry from Mexico as a state crime, with a sentence of up to six months in prison or 20 years for repeat offenders.

This law gives the power to state authorities to arrest and detain people who they suspect have committed this crime and allows state judges to order the expulsion of migrants to Mexican territory.

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The organizations that sued the rule, including the NGOs American Gateways and the American Immigrant Advocacy Center, argued in court that the SB4 law is illegal because it enters a field that is exclusively the federal government's, deciding who can or cannot enter the United States, interferes with the work of federal authorities and prevents migrants who crossed irregularly from being able to request asylum.

The organizations have also argued that, when it comes into effect, this law may lead local authorities to act in a discriminatory manner against Hispanic communities and ethnic and racial minorities.

Fighting "open borders"

Texas approved the SB4 law during the Government of former President Joe Biden (2021-2025), amid a record increase in the number of people crossing the southern border irregularly and a confrontation between Texas and the Democratic Administration.

Now, under the Donald Trump Administration, irregular border crossings have decreased to their lowest point in years and the Government is instead embarking on a campaign of mass arrest of immigrants inside the country.

The SB4 law will come into effect at a time when Governor Greg Abbott has pressured the state's main cities (including Houston, Dallas and Austin) not to limit collaboration between local police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), given the public's rejection of the Trump Administration's "iron fist" policies.

In the last year, arrests of migrants who do not have criminal records have skyrocketed by 770%, while arrests in public have increased more than 1,000%, according to an analysis by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California at Berkeley.

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