Texas just got the green light to enforce one of the toughest state border laws in the country.
On May 29, 2026, a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed a lower court order and allowed Texas SB4 to take effect while the litigation continues.
SB4 makes it a state crime to enter Texas illegally.
That means Texas police can start arresting migrants suspected of crossing the southern border between designated ports of entry, and judges can order those found guilty of illegal entry removed from the country.
Gov. Greg Abbott did not wait long to call it what it is.
BREAKING: Texas received a major border security victory.
SB 4 makes it a state crime to illegally enter Texas. Shortly after I filed a legal brief defending that law, a federal appeals court ruled to allow it to be enforced while the case continues.
We will keep fighting in… pic.twitter.com/lxhtzCRpsw
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) May 29, 2026
The law passed in late 2023 and has been tangled in court ever since.
The May 29 decision followed a May 14 preliminary injunction from U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra that had blocked portions of the law.
The appeals panel lifted that block and let the state move forward.
Community Impact laid out exactly what the court did and what the law allows:
Texas’ sweeping immigration enforcement law can take effect for now, a federal appeals court ruled May 29.
Senate Bill 4 gives Texas officials the unprecedented authority to arrest and deport migrants suspected of crossing the Texas-Mexico border illegally. State lawmakers passed the measure in late 2023, and it has largely been tied up in court since.
In an unpublished order May 29, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed SB 4 to take effect as the case continues, lifting a lower court order that had blocked portions of the law. The decision is the latest in over two years of legal back-and-forth surrounding the immigration law.
SB 4 makes it a state crime to cross the southern border without proper documentation or authorization, allowing Texas police to arrest migrants they suspect entered the country between designated border crossings or ports of entry. Judges can order that migrants be removed from the country if they are found guilty of illegal entry.
Gov. Greg Abbott celebrated the order as a “major border security victory.”
ADVERTISEMENT“We will keep fighting in the courts, working with President Trump, and doing everything necessary to secure our border and protect Texans,” the governor said on X.
The Daily Caller reported the same result and noted who tried to stop it:
Texas police can start arresting people suspected of crossing the border illegally after a federal appeals court on Friday cleared the way for the state to enforce a contested immigration statute.
The order came from a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which sided with Texas over a lower court injunction that had blocked sections of Senate Bill 4. Judge Leslie Southwick was the lone dissenter and would have rejected the state’s motion.
The brief order provided no detailed reasoning beyond pausing the prior block.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the national ACLU and the Texas Civil Rights Project filed the May 4 class-action suit that produced Ezra’s now-stayed order, contending the law strips the federal government of its exclusive authority over immigration enforcement, according to a press release from the ACLU of Texas. The coalition has described SB 4 as among the harshest immigration statutes any state legislature has enacted.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott praised the appeals court’s ruling in a post to X, framing it as a win for border security. “We will keep fighting in the courts, working with President Trump, and doing everything necessary to secure our border and protect Texans,” Abbott wrote on the platform.
The left moved fast to fight it.
The ACLU, the ACLU of Texas, and the Texas Civil Rights Project sued to block parts of SB4 and criticized the latest order.
They have spent more than two years trying to keep Texas from defending its own border, and for now the court told them no.
State agencies have not yet detailed publicly how they plan to carry out enforcement under the law.
Abbott has signaled he is not waiting on Washington or on activist judges to settle the question before Texas acts.
The case continues, but the practical result is immediate: Texas can enforce SB4 now, while Abbott keeps the state aligned with President Trump on border security.
