Appeals Court Upholds Block on Texas Immigration Law, Citing Harm to Legal Aid Providers

Ruling maintains injunction against S.B. 4 as Trump administration allies push state-level enforcement

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a lower court’s decision to block the enforcement of Texas’s controversial immigration law, Senate Bill 4 (S.B. 4), dealing a blow to efforts by the Trump-aligned state government to criminalize unauthorized entry and empower state judges to order deportations.

In a 185-page opinion, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that the nonprofit Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center had standing to challenge the law, citing concrete harm to its legal services and mission. The court concluded that Texas’s new law would “perceptibly impair” the group’s ability to provide legal representation to immigrants, requiring costly resource diversion, staff retraining, and the creation of entirely new operations.

“S.B. 4 requires Las Americas to develop an entirely new operation to provide immigration representation to those arrested,” the panel wrote, adding that the law “will necessarily require diverting funding and staff time from commun…