U.S. Department of Justice says it’ll sue if Texas enforces new law punishing illegal | 2024-01-28 14:42:36 (Visits: 584 Times) |  | | BY JOSHUA FECHTER DEC. 28, 2023 UPDATED: 5 PM CENTRAL
Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.The U.S. Department of Justice has threatened to sue to stop a new Texas law that allows state police to arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the border — unless Gov. Greg Abbott backs off of enforcing the law.The new law, known as Senate Bill 4, is “unconstitutional and will disrupt the federal government’s operations” vis-à-vis immigration and border enforcement, an agency official told Gov. Greg Abbott in a letter first reported Thursday by the Houston Chronicle and later posted on social media by a CBS News reporter.If Texas does not formally refrain from enforcing the law by Jan. 3, the agency will “pursue all appropriate legal remedies to ensure that Texas does not interfere with the functions of the federal government.”A person with knowledge of the letter confirmed that it had been sent. An Abbott spokesperson said Thursday that Texas is prepared to fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of the law, adding that the governor signed the law "to help stop the tidal wave of illegal entry into Texas." On X, formerly known as Twitter, Abbott said the Biden administration "not only refuses to enforce current U.S. immigration laws, they now want to stop Texas from enforcing laws against illegal immigration.""I’ve never seen such hostility to the rule of law in America," Abbott wrote. "Biden is destroying America. Texas is trying to save it." The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.The new law makes crossing the Texas-Mexico border between ports of entry a Class B misdemeanor. If a migrant agrees to return to Mexico, a judge can drop the charges. Otherwise, a suspected offender faces a potential six-month jail sentence — with longer sentences for repeat offenders............
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