Border

After Texas deployed the barrier, a panel ordered it removed. The full appeals court says it can stay while a lower court hears a case on the merits.

A temporary hold on the law was set to expire Wednesday, but the high court extended the pause until the following Monday.

The United States Supreme Court has put on hold a federal appeals court decision that would have allowed Texas’ controversial immigration-enforcement law, Senate Bill 4, to go into effect as early as this weekend. The Supreme Court’s decision means the law is on hold until at least the middle of next week.

Former President Donald Trump was also in Texas on Thursday.

The lawsuit comes less than a day after Gov. Greg Abbott held a ceremonial bill signing for Senate Bill 4. The law is scheduled to take effect in March if it survives the legal challenges.

The vote followed a committee hearing where the developer of a neighborhood called Colony Ridge had to push back yet again against claims his property was attracting dangerous immigrants and running rampant with crime.

Monday’s decision is part of a lawsuit Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed last week alleging the Biden administration was trying to thwart the state’s efforts to secure its border.

Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration on Tuesday after reports and videos surfaced last month showing U.S. Border Patrol agents have cut pieces of concertina wiring placed along the state’s border with Mexico.

The proposed legislation would make unauthorized entry from another country a state crime and allow local and state police to order migrants to return to Mexico. If passed, the change could potentially land Texas back in court.

It was a short-lived victory for the federal government over Texas’ anti-migrant border buoys. The day after a federal judge ordered the buoys' removal, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an emergency stay.