Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined a coalition of 22 state attorneys general in filing an amicus brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in support of Texas’s illegal alien removal law, SB4, being challenged in the case United States v. Texas.
SB4 makes illegal immigration a state crime and allows state magistrates and judges to order those who have crossed the border illegally back to the country – in this case, Mexico – from which they entered.
The Biden administration and private plaintiffs sued Texas over the law, arguing that immigration laws are the federal government’s responsibility.
TN AG Skrmetti Joins Brief Supporting Texas’ Right to Protect its Citizens from Illegal Immigration
➡️https://t.co/Fppc8VHEWR pic.twitter.com/rbTOGbxHlU
— TN Attorney General (@AGTennessee) March 21, 2024
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected a request from the Biden administration to intervene and keep the law on hold while it is challenged in lower courts.
However, hours later, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision blocking the law’s enforcement.
“States also bear an obligation to their citizens to address the attendant public crisis. That obligation implicates one of Amici States’ core sovereign prerogatives—enacting legislation pursuant to their police powers to protect their citizens’ safety… Relatedly, Amici States have a paramount interest in ensuring that their validly enacted state laws are not improperly held unconstitutional under incorrect preemption analyses,” the amicus brief filed by Skrmetti and other state attorneys general states.
Skrmetti, in a separate statement, added, “Tennessee stands with Texas as it protects its citizens from the ongoing federal failure to secure our southern border.”
“The federal government has abdicated its duty at the border. Until the federal open border policies are fixed, the states as sovereign governments have both the right and the responsibility to protect their citizens,” Skrmetti said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
