As the U.S. courts continue to go back and forth over the Texas law allowing police officers to arrest illegal aliens, a growing number of other states are joining the Lone Star State in rolling out their own laws and policies that are tough on illegal immigration.
On March 19, the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling allowing the Texas SB4 Immigration Law to go into effect.
The ruling would have left in place an appeals court administrative stay on an earlier federal judge’s preliminary injunction blocking the law from taking effect as scheduled. The latest ruling will see the matter sent back to United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which will hear the case on appeal.
But right on the tail of the SCOTUS decision, a federal appeals court put a hold on the law once again.
SB 4 would make illegally crossing the border a Class B misdemeanor, which could carry a six-month jail term under state rules. The law also allows state judges to deport illegals.
Whatever the final fate of Texas’s SB 4, other states have already begun their own efforts to stiffen their laws against illegal immigration.
As the Associated Press noted, states including Georgia, New Hampshire, and Tennessee all began floating bills to strengthen their state proscriptions on illegal immigration.
New Hampshire, for instance is debating a law that would allow police to charge illegals with trespassing charges for those who entered illegally from Canada.
Despite the seesawing over the Texas law, Iowa passed its own version of the law giving state police officers the capability to arrest undocumented individuals who enter the state “after being previously deported or barred from entering the United States.”
Georgia, too, is working on a rule requiring state and city officials to work with federal immigration authorities to detain and deport illegals.
As to Tennessee, the Volunteer State is also working on a law requiring law enforcement to work with federal immigration officials. But some lawmakers are also leaning toward pushing a law similar to the Texas arrest and deport law.
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