GREG ABBOTT, the governor of Texas, watched his dream of a state-run immigration policy become reality this week. On March 19th America’s Supreme Court ruled that Texas could—at least temporarily—enforce Senate Bill 4 (SB4), a law that makes it a state crime for migrants to cross Texas’s border with Mexico between legal ports of entry (see map). The bill gives local police the authority to arrest people they suspect of coming to America illegally and empowers state judges to order deportations. This was the first time that a state had assumed these powers, which had been reserved for the federal government.
But Mr Abbott’s triumph lasted less than nine hours. The Supreme Court’s emergency ruling was a stopgap that lobbed the question of SB4’s legality down to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the region’s federal appellate court. That night three judges in New Orleans decided to put the law on hold while they deliberate on its merits in the coming weeks. Immigration advocates who worried that SB4 would put a target on Latinos’ backs were relieved; Mr Abbott said he felt as if he was watching a tennis rally.
