With the furor over abortion dying down, for now, it had been a few days since a Texas law made national news.
Gov. Greg Abbott took care of that with a high-profile signing of Texas’ latest effort to insert itself into federal immigration matters. The new law creates a state crime of illegal entry and allows judges to order the removal of those who violate it, under certain conditions.
The law has already drawn a court challenge. It’s novel and vague enough that its exact fate is unpredictable, but the supremacy of federal immigration law is clear. Texas is once again meddling where it doesn’t belong. We’re sympathetic to the impulse to address the unprecedented illegal immigration driving this. But attempting to usurp policing of the border isn’t the answer.
