For three years Biden told Texas it had no right to protect itself.
The Lone Star state fought back to defend its sovereignty.
And what happens next could change immigration enforcement in every red state in America.
Texas SB4 Takes Effect After Fifth Circuit Lifts Injunction
The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit voted 10–7 to lift the injunction that had kept Texas Senate Bill 4 on ice since 2024.
SB4 does something the open-borders crowd has been terrified of since Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed it in December 2023.
Under SB4, crossing into Texas illegally is now a state crime. Texas judges can order violators out of the country. Anyone who refuses to go faces up to 20 years in state prison.
And this wasn't a three-judge panel that made it happen — it was the full Fifth Circuit, all ten judges in the majority, clearing the runway for Texas to start making arrests today.
The court didn't even rule on whether SB4 is constitutional.
The groups suing to stop the law – Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and American Gateways – couldn't prove they had legal standing to sue in the first place. No standing means no case, and no case means the injunction is gone.
Six Million Illegal Aliens and 336 Terror Suspects: Why Texas Passed SB4
The Fifth Circuit majority wasn't gentle about why SB4 exists.
Writing for the majority, Circuit Judge Jerry E. Smith put the numbers on the table: from 2021 to 2023, more than 6 million illegal aliens from over 100 countries streamed across the Texas border.
Among them: 100,000 unaccompanied minors, about 2,000 gang members, and 336 individuals on the federal terrorist watchlist.
Biden's Justice Department went to court to protect those numbers from state consequences.
Trump's DOJ dropped that challenge in March 2025.
Ken Paxton didn't mince words.
"Texas's right to arrest illegals, protect our citizens, and enforce immigration law is fundamental," Paxton said. "This is a major win for public safety and law and order."
He's right. And the other Republican governors are watching.
Mississippi Made Illegal Immigration a State Crime. Other Red States Are Next.
This ruling isn't just about Texas.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves just signed SB2114, making illegal immigration a state felony carrying up to two years in prison.
Mississippi's Department of Public Safety is now required to identify and coordinate removal of every illegal alien in the state – addressing an estimated $100 million in annual costs to taxpayers for education, healthcare, and crime.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds did the same thing in 2024.
Now the Fifth Circuit has cleared Texas, and the legal template is sitting on the desk of every red state legislature in America.
Texas didn't need to wait for a federal agent. It built its own enforcement track from arrest to prosecution to prison — all under state authority.
And here's what that means in practice: a state trooper can arrest someone for illegal entry under SB4, hand them to ICE, and have them deported — without waiting for them to rob someone, assault someone, or kill someone first.
That's the part Democrats never wanted you to figure out. Under the old system, illegal aliens were effectively untouchable by state law enforcement until they committed a separate crime. SB4 closes that gap. The illegal entry is the crime.
Biden spent four years making sure no other state could do the same.
How Texas SB4 Went Further Than Arizona SB1070 and Why It Matters Now
This fight has been building for 16 years.
In 2010, Arizona passed SB1070 – the original attempt to make illegal immigration a state crime.
Obama's DOJ went to court within weeks, and the Supreme Court struck down three of the four major provisions in 2012, ruling that immigration was primarily a federal domain.
Texas studied that loss.
Paxton's office argued explicitly that SB4 was designed to mirror federal law rather than contradict it – threading the needle the Supreme Court drew in 2012.
"Texas has gone as far as Arizona v. United States allows by using the State's sovereign police power to protect the border in a way that mirrors rather than conflicts with federal law," Paxton said.
The decisive difference between 2010 and today: Trump's DOJ isn't fighting Texas.
It's standing aside – and that removes the central argument courts used to destroy Arizona's law.
Without the federal government as an adversary, opponents of SB4 needed better plaintiffs before they could even get a hearing.
The Fifth Circuit just told them they don't have those plaintiffs.
The Clock Is Now Running Against the Open-Borders Lobby
SB4 is already in effect while opponents go back to square one on standing.
Every day that law operates is a day Texas state troopers can arrest and remove illegal aliens under state criminal authority – without waiting for a federal agent, federal resources, or federal political will.
Mass deportation at the federal level is constrained by logistics, manpower, and budget.
When states enforce their own immigration laws, the federal manpower problem disappears. Texas DPS alone has more than 10,000 commissioned officers. Add Mississippi, Iowa, and every other red state that follows — and ICE is no longer doing this alone.
Every Republican governor in America has a road map on the desk right now, and the open-borders lobby just lost the only tool that was keeping it locked in a drawer.
Sources:
- Matthew Vadum, "Federal Appeals Court Allows Texas To Enforce State Immigration Law," The Epoch Times, April 25, 2026.
- Ken Paxton, Office of the Texas Attorney General, press statement, April 24, 2026.
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center v. Ken Paxton, April 24, 2026.
- Ken Paxton, Office of the Texas Attorney General, "Attorney General Ken Paxton Releases Statement On SB 4 Oral Argument," April 3, 2024.
- "Mississippi makes illegal immigration a state crime," Voz.us, April 14, 2026.
- "Fifth Circuit Allows Texas To Enforce SB 4 After Injunction Vacated," Hoodline, April 25, 2026.
