Texas immigration controversy rekindles fight over Arizona’s ‘show me your papers’ law

The legal battle over a controversial Texas immigration law could eventually give the Supreme Court a chance to revisit a historic ruling that largely struck down Arizona’s “show me your papers” law and reaffirmed the federal government’s “broad, undoubted power” over immigration.

The legal battle over a controversial Texas immigration law could eventually give the Supreme Court a chance to revisit a historic ruling that largely struck down Arizona’s “show me your papers” law and reaffirmed the federal government’s “broad, undoubted power” over immigration. Texas’ SB 4, which allows state officials to arrest and detain people they suspect of entering the country illegally, is back in court Wednesday at the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The law is on hold after three judges blocked it while they consider whether it is constitutional. That same panel will hear Wednesday’s arguments. The majority ruling in the 2-1 decision last month leaned heavily on the 2012 Supreme Court case known as Arizona v. United States, in which the high court struck down several provisions of an Arizona law, SB 1070, intended to deter illegal immigration. Legal experts believe the Texas case could eventually give the majority-conservative Supreme Court an opportunity to take another look at the federal government’s long-held control over immigration policy. “This would be probably one of the most radical changes the Supreme Court has made in the immigration field,” said Andrew Schoenholtz, a professor at Georgetown Law and an expert on immigration law, referring to the possibility that the high court overturns its 2012 ruling. “It’s that much of a change that Texas is asking for.”