Mexico has joined a legal challenge to Texas' anti-sanctuary city law. In its filing to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Mexico argues Texas Senate Bill 4 could harm diplomatic relations between U.S. and Mexico, adding that immigration law is a federal matter, not a state one.
“The U.S. government may have a valid government, but I don't think the U.S. government needs Mexico to come in and give the arguments the U.S. government would give,” says Gerald Treece at South Texas College of Law Houston.
“Unless they just don't trust the administration and they want to say something they think the U.S. government is not going to say,” he adds.
With roughly 2.5 million people living in Texas who were born in Mexico, Mexico's brief says that SB 4 has caused them "fear, panic and uncertainty." Houston and other Texas cities already are trying to block the law, so Treece thinks Mexico is late to the party.
“I don't think there's anything Mexico can say or do that's helpful or relevant to this question,” he says. “Let's say I'm wrong, at the very least they should have tried to intervene at the trial court level.”
In August, a judge in San Antonio temporarily halted the law from going into effect, but he state appealed to the Fifth Circuit. Oral arguments are scheduled November 7.