Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23a814_febh.pdf
Page Number: 8.0

Cite as:  601 U. S. ____ (2023) 

3 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

has enacted a comprehensive and detailed scheme concern-
ing  the  entry  and  removal  of  noncitizens.  See,  e.g.,  8 
U. S. C. §1229a(a)(3) (federal removal proceedings are “the 
sole  and  exclusive  procedure  for  determining  whether  [a 
noncitizen] may be admitted to the United States or, if the
[noncitizen] has been so admitted, removed from the United 
States”).

Over a century of this Court’s precedent confirms that the
“authority  to  control  immigration—to  admit  or  exclude 
[noncitizens]—is vested solely in the Federal Government.” 
Truax v. Raich, 239 U. S. 33, 42 (1915).  “[T]he removal pro-
cess  is  entrusted  to  the  discretion  of  the  Federal  Govern-
ment,”  because  removal  decisions  “touch  on  foreign  rela-
tions and must be made with one voice.”  Arizona, 567 U. S., 
at 409. 

B 
Texas Senate Bill 4 (S. B. 4) permits the State to arrest 
and remove to Mexico noncitizens who enter, attempt to en-
ter, or reside in Texas, while instructing state courts to dis-
regard any ongoing federal immigration proceedings.  See 
S. B. 4, 88th Leg., 4th Called Sess. (2023).  As the Governor 
of  Texas  declared,  S.  B.  4  embodies  Texas’s  view  that  its 
constitutional authority “is the supreme law of the land and 
supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary.” Governor
Greg Abbott, Press Release, Statement on Texas’s Consti-
tutional Right to Self-Defense (Jan. 24, 2024). 

Specifically, S. B. 4 makes it a crime for a noncitizen to
“ente[r] or attemp[t] to enter [Texas] directly from a foreign 
nation  at  any  location  other  than  a  lawful  port  of  entry.” 
Tex. Penal Code Ann. §51.02(a) (West 2024).  It also makes 
it a crime for a noncitizen to “ente[r], attemp[t] to enter,” or
be found in Texas after previously having been “denied ad-
mission  to  or  excluded,  deported,  or  removed  from  the
United States,” or having “departed from the United States
while an order of . . . removal [wa]s outstanding.”  §51.03(a).