BREAKING: Federal appeals court allows Texas law permitting officers to arrest illegal immigrants to take effect

A federal appeals court has granted a temporary stay of a federal judge's earlier decision to prevent Texas from implementing SB 4.

The legislation would make crossing the border an arrestable offense.

According to CNN, the New Orleans-based Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Saturday that the stay would be granted for one week to give the Biden administration the ability to take the case to the Supreme Court. If they do not, however, SB 4 will be allowed to go into effect.

The legislation was halted last week by Austin, Texas-based Judge David Alan Ezra, who argued that, "if allowed to proceed, SB 4 could open the door to each state passing its own version of immigration laws."

He suggested that, "surges in immigration do not constitute an 'invasion' within the meaning of the Constitution, nor is Texas engaging in war by enforcing SB 4," and that, "to allow Texas to permanently supersede federal directives on the basis of an invasion would amount to nullification of federal law and authority—a notion that is antithetical to the Constitution and has been unequivocally rejected by federal courts since the Civil War."

Texas refused to back down, with Gov. Greg Abbott vowing to "protect our state – and our nation – from President Biden's border crisis."

"BREAKING HUGE NEWS," Abbott wrote in a post on X applauding the court of appeals' decision. "Law enforcement officers in Texas are not authorized to arrest & jail any illegal immigrants crossing the border."

This is a breaking story and will be updated.