South Carolina – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson is strongly supporting Texas as it fights to protect its southern border. He says that the Biden Administration has not followed federal immigration rules.
Along with Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, Wilson led a group of 21 states in filing a legal brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in support of Texas’ Senate Bill 4 (S.B. 4). Many states believe that Washington has not done enough to stop illegal border crossings, but the law gives state officials more power to do so.
The coalition says in the brief that the federal government has gone too far by seeking to stop states from protecting their citizens. Wilson stressed that Texas is doing this out of necessity, not political ambition.
“Texas is doing what Washington wouldn’t do under the former administration, protect its people,” said Attorney General Wilson. “When the federal government refuses to enforce immigration laws, states have not only the right but the duty to step in. This isn’t about politics, it’s about protecting families, upholding the law, and defending state sovereignty.”
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The states say that S.B. 4 doesn’t go against federal immigration law; instead, it helps it by letting state law enforcement help in places where federal officials have failed. The brief says that the Biden Administration’s position that federal authority “preempts” the statute is wrong and goes against long-standing ideas about federalism.
Wilson and his colleagues also disagreed with the lower court’s decision to strike down the statute, saying that it didn’t fully understand the limits of state and federal authority as set out in the Constitution. The brief asks the appeal court to say again that states have the constitutional right to defend their residents when federal law enforcement fails.
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wyoming are all part of the 21-state coalition. Each state has expressed concerns about the effects of the federal government’s inaction on immigration, including increased drug trafficking, human smuggling, and threats to public safety.
As the case goes on, Wilson’s leadership shows that there is more and more tension between the state and federal governments over border policy. This might affect how much power states have to enforce immigration laws for years to come.
