If enforced, SB4 would allow state and local law enforcement officers to arrest and question people they suspect are undocumented, and allow judges to order detainees’ removal to the border. Federal courts have blocked SB4 since it was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott (R) in December 2023. But under the administration of President Donald Trump, advocates were unsure whether this would change.

“Immigration enforcement is the sole authority of the federal government,” Aron Thorn, senior attorney at Texas Civil Rights Project, told Filter. “Whether the federal government is enforcing that law in a way that the State of Texas approves or disapproves of, the Constitution makes clear that it does not give license to the states to make their own immigration law.”

SB4 would create a new state-level criminal offense of “illegal entry” to Texas, with a six-month jail penalty. The ACLU of Texas has characterized it as “one of the most extreme pieces of anti-immigrant legislation any state legislature has ever enacted.”  People who were previously denied admission or deported could be charged with “illegal re-entry”—carrying a potential 20-year prison sentence.

“Immigration enforcement is the sole authority of the federal government.”

After Abbott signed SB4, civil rights organizations immediately sued the state of Texas in federal court. Texas Civil Rights Project argued in the appeals case on behalf of American Gateways and Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, two nonprofits based in Texas. In January 2024, the Department of Justice under President Joe Biden sued Texas as well. The litigation was consolidated, and in February 2024 a preliminary injunction was granted to block SB 4 from taking effect. Texas appealed the decision. In March 2025 the DOJ under Trump dropped the suit, but the civil rights group continued.

The question now is whether the Texas government will continue to litigate, and potentially even take the case to the Supreme Court.

Thorn said there could be several paths forward. The state could request a rehearing en banc, wherein all Fifth Circuit judges would hear the appeal again. If the state lost at that level, it could request that the Supreme Court intervene. Or the state could bypass the en banc procedure and immediately ask the Supreme Court to review the current ruling.

In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that federal authority preempted state-level authority in the area of immigration. Among other concerns, the justices wrote that other nations need to be able communicate with one government, not 50. “These considerations apply in full force to SB 4 and certainly auger in favor of concluding that Congress intended to occupy the field regarding the entry and removal of aliens,” they wrote.

ICE is now the the highest-funded federal agency.

“Since [SB4] was passed, community members and advocates have been fearful about what this can mean for them as they try to conduct their daily lives,” Priscilla Olivarez, senior policy attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, told Filter “We’re very grateful the Fifth Circuit agreed.”

Operation Lone Star is being enforced in many part of Texas, however. Since launching in March 2021, this state-level initiative has deputized the Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard to make immigration-related arrests, working closely with federal border patrol agents. Olivarez described a climate in which state officials work in tandem with the federal government to sow fear.

“We’ve seen deadly high-speed chases increase in localities where [Operation Lone Star is] active,” she said. “It targets migrants for arrest and deportation and funnels them into a state system created just for immigrants—so, a state jail system, docket and public defenders … where they’re prevented from accessing the asylum system.”

On July 4, Trump signed into law the “Big, Beautiful Bill” that appropriates around $170 billion for border enforcement. ICE is now the the highest-funded federal agency, and its newly tripled budget will include about $30 billion for new hires and and other administrative and personnel expenses. The bill also appropriates $45 billion for immigrant detention centers and another $46.5 billion to build the border wall. And $5 billion more for Customs and Border Protection facilities.

Photograph (cropped) via Representative Tony Gonzalez (R-TX)

The post Federal Court Blocks Texas From State-Level Immigration Enforcement appeared first on Filter.

The move follows one of Trump’s January 20 executive orders, “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.” While the DOJ agencies have more power to conduct investigations and make arrests, deportation itself is still the purview of DHS agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“Other agencies do not have authority to… start the removal proceedings, nor to physically deport them from the United States,” Charles Kuck, an Atlanta-based attorney specializing in immigration law, told Filter. “That happens in the venue of the immigration courts.” 

Though ICE’s enforcement and removal operations already focus heavily on people with drug possession convictions, the DEA’s involvement stands to increase that. The newly deputized agencies within the DOJ have begun coordinating large-scale sweeps in Chicago, and Atlanta and other cities across the country.

Yesterday, @ICEgov arrested nearly 1,000 illegal aliens across the country. Many of these people are violent criminals. These arrests are critical to ensuring the safety of American citizens. https://t.co/mN9bw92FQg

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) January 27, 2025

In a January 26 social media post, ICE reported that it made 956 arrests and lodged 554 detainers—when a jail or prison continues to hold someone already in custody on the agency’s behalf—which according to CNN was higher than any other single-day total the agency has reported on previous posts. On January 27, the ICE reported 1,179 arrests and 853 detainers.

The agency has reportedly been assigned a quota wherein each of its 25 field houses around the country must make at least 75 new arrests each day. This would mean over 1,800 total per day, while prior to Trump’s inauguration the agency was making a few hundred per day on average. A White House spokesperson told the Washington Post that the quotas are “fake news.”

“What we’re gonna see is ICE and these collaborating federal agencies now being forced to go after mom and dad, grandma and grandpa,” Kuck said. “Folks who’ve been here for 20, 30 or 40 years.”

Trump’s other immigration enforcement actions include moving to end birthright citizenship, which a federal court judge has said is unconstitutional, and to revoke citizenship from potentially hundreds of of thousands of people who’d immigrated to the country legally.

“ICE already has a database of 1.5 million people with active deportation orders,” Kuck said. “Even if they focused only on them, they would be busy for the next four years.”

Image (cropped) of January 26 raid via Immigration and Customs Enforcement

The post DEA Cleared to Make Immigration Arrests as Mass Deportations Begin appeared first on Filter.