During the Obama and Biden administrations, states like Arizona and Texas were forced to fight legal and in some cases actual battles, setting up and having defenses torn down, to protect their borders from mobs of invading illegal aliens only to be told that states had no right to secure their borders.

The latest decision advances the rights of states to defend their borders.

SB 4, the 2023 Texas law that allows state police to arrest people suspected of entering the country illegally can finally go into effect after the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld it, and lifted a lower court ruling that had stopped it for almost 3 years.

Texas lawmakers passed the bill back in 2023, in response to the wide open border, and lack of enforcement by the Biden administration.

Radical immigration groups have been fighting it ever since, but the appeals court ruled that plaintiffs – Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, American Gateways and El Paso County could not pursue a lawsuit.

We’re not out of the woods yet. This was a decision stating that pro-illegal open borders groups lacked the standing to challenge it. The open borders case against it was weak, and since the Trump admin wasn’t challenging it, any further challenges would come from either deported illegals or a future Dem administration. But it is important in allowing Texas, at least for the moment, to protect its borders.