Trump Justice Department challenges Biden-era court challenge Texas border security law

The Trump administration is abandoning Biden-era legal challenges to Texas immigration law, which allows state and local police to arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the U.S. border into Texas.

The Justice Department voluntarily fired the challenge of Texas law, known as SB 4, on Tuesday, despite the legal challenges of two immigration rights groups, the U.S. Portal and the Russ American Immigration Advocate Center, which will continue in July’s trial.

What is controversial is Texas’ controversial 2023 Act, which makes illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border a state crime in Texas, with the state granting local law enforcement officers the power to arrest individuals they cross the border illegally and criminally penalties for those who acknowledge illegally crossing the border.

As the overall encounter continues to plummet on Trump’s observations, the new border sector becomes the country’s busiest

The law also allows judges to step in and waive charges against immigrants who agree to return to Mexico.

While state lawmakers believe that former President Joe Biden’s loose policy on border security must have the law, the Biden administration is against the state’s challenge to legal challenges. Most notably, the Biden administration argues that Texas law violates the Constitution, which only grants the federal government the power to regulate immigration.

Then-President Joe Biden spoke with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials while visiting the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas on January 8, 2023. (Jim Watson/AFP)

Border Agents Tell Fox

“Because SB 4 is unconstitutional and will undermine federal action, we ask Texas to ban law enforcement.” Principal Deputy Attorney General Brian Boynton gave Texas Governor Greg Abbott (Greg) Abbott wrote in a letter that the bill was signed as a Republican governor, adding: “The bill signed news reports and complied with a New York State report to recourse to the mandatory nature of SB, which is mandatory for SIN.

Abbott will continue to sign legislation, raising current legal challenges.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed SB 4 into law in 2023. (AP Photo/LM Otero, file)

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Meanwhile, in the weeks since President Donald Trump took office, Border and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have documented illegal immigration encounters with the Southwest border.

According to CBP data, the agency encountered more than 8,000 immigrants at the southwest border in February 2025, down more than 90% from last year’s total.