No path forward: Since the federal government has immigration-enforcement authority, there is plenty of reason to believe the Texas law will ultimately get struck down. The state, meanwhile, says the law has a necessary deterrent effect.
“No matter how emphatic Texas’ criticism of the federal government’s handling of immigration on the border may be to some,” wrote U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra when ruling on the case last month, “disagreement with the federal government’s immigration policy does not justify a violation of the [U.S. Constitution’s] Supremacy Clause.”
But the Supreme Court intervening, and possibly striking down S.B. 4 altogether, doesn’t mean tensions will be cooled—quite the opposite.
“There is either a red wave this November or America is doomed,” wrote Elon Musk on X this past weekend, in response to a video about New York City’s migrant crisis. “Imagine four more years of this getting worse,” he added, ominously. But one thing that will surely get worse, regardless of who gets elected in November, is the degree of polarization driving Americans further away from each other on this issue in particular. There are wonky questions worth sussing out—How many low-skilled job-seekers can our labor market bear? Are there certain low-cost-of-living areas of the country that can better accommodate migrants? How quickly should work authorization be processed?—but both political parties have chosen to sidestep these questions in favor of political posturing that does very little to serve the border-crossers in question. |