Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador sharply criticized a Texas law that would empower state law enforcement to arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the border, saying Mexico will not accept anyone deported by Texas.
“Let me say this once and for all, we will not accept deportations from the Texan government,” Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday at his daily news conference.
The law, which was blocked again late on Tuesday by a federal appeals court, just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court had cleared the way for it to go into effect, is draconian, dehumanizing and unfair, Lopez Obrador said, underscoring it would prompt a diplomatic response from Mexico.
“We oppose this draconian law, it is completely contrary to human rights, completely dehumanizing, anti-Christian, unjust, it violates the norms of human coexistence (and) not only international law, but even violates the Bible,” he said.
Meanwhile, a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering whether to allow the law known as Senate Bill 4 to take effect while Texas appeals a judge’s ruling that blocked it pending the outcome of a challenge by the Biden administration and civil rights groups.
Aaron Nielson, a lawyer for Texas, told the panel in opening remarks that SB 4 mirrors federal immigration law and is a legitimate exercise of the state’s police powers.
“Texas has a right to defend itself,” Nielson said.
The statute was signed in December by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. The Biden administration sued in January to stop the law, arguing that it violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law by interfering with the U.S. government’s power to regulate immigration as well as running afoul of a 2012 Supreme Court precedent.
Reuters contributed to this article.