Washington Roundup: Texas sued over migrant law; White House seeks gun bill; Jan. 6 vigil planned

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The Justice Department Jan. 3 sued Texas over a new law making it a state crime for unauthorized migrants to cross into Texas from Mexico. Catholic organizations have opposed the legislation, with the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops saying it could have “deadly consequences for innocent migrants.”

Justice Department sues Texas over controversial immigration bill

Senate Bill 4, signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, in December, makes unlawfully crossing Texas’ international border a state crime separate from a federal one, granting local law enforcement officials power to arrest migrants suspected of lacking legal authorization to be in the U.S.

The legislation forbids such arrests at schools, places of worship, health care facilities or designated SAFE-Ready facilities, which the state operates for those who have experienced sexual assault.

Supporters of the legislation argue it would combat unauthorized entry into the state by empowering law enforcement, while opponents argue it is unconstitutional and inhumane.

Federal law already makes it illegal to enter the U.S. without authorization, and most portions of a similar 2010 Arizona law were later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Immigration advocacy groups in Texas filed a lawsuit over the bill prior to the Justice Department’s challenge.

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a statement that “SB 4 is clearly unconstitutional.”

“Under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution and long-standing Supreme Court precedent, states cannot adopt immigration laws that interfere with the framework enacted by Congress,” Gupta said. “The Justice Department will continue to fulfill its responsibility to uphold the Constitution and enforce federal law.”

Abbott took a confident tone on social media.

“Biden sued me today because I signed a law making it illegal for an illegal immigrant to enter or attempt to enter Texas directly from a foreign nation,” Abbott wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I like my chances.”

Trump challenges Maine ballot ruling

Former President Donald Trump Jan. 2 appealed a ruling by Maine’s secretary of state barring him from that state’s primary ballot over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, during which his supporters following a rally attempted to thwart Congress’ certification of President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

Trump, who leads polls in the 2024 Republican presidential primary amid his third bid for the White House, appealed the decision by Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, who argued that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits those who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office, makes Trump ineligible for the ballot. The Civil War-era provision in question was designed to keep former Confederates from returning to government following their rebellion against the United States.

A similar ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court is under review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump faces dozens of felony charges in four separate criminal cases related to his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election as well as the mishandling of classified documents, among other misconduct.

But the specific charge of insurrection has not been among those charges to date, with even Trump’s GOP opponents, such as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has criticized attempts to remove Trump or any candidate from the ballot without “a trial and evidence that’s accepted by a jury that they did participate in insurrection.”

Ohio lawmakers may attempt to override governor’s veto of gender bill

Republicans in the Ohio House plan to attempt to override Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s recent veto of legislation that bans certain types of medical or surgical gender reassignment procedures for minors who identify as transgender and also prohibits athletes from competing on sports teams corresponding with their self-perceived gender identity opposite their biological sex.

Local media reported it was not immediately clear if Republicans would have the requisite 59 representatives and 20 senators needed to override the governor.

DeWine told reporters in December that he vetoed the bill because he believed parents, not government, should make these decisions.

“They should be made by the people who love these kids the most, and that’s the parents,” DeWine said. “The parents who have raised that child, the parents who have seen that child go through agony, the parents who worry about that child every single day of their life.”

In guidance on health care policy and practices released in March 2023, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine opposed interventions that “involve the use of surgical or chemical techniques that aim to exchange the sex characteristics of a patient’s body for those of the opposite sex or for simulations thereof.”

“Any technological intervention that does not accord with the fundamental order of the human person as a unity of body and soul, including the sexual difference inscribed in the body, ultimately does not help but, rather, harms the human person,” the document states.

White House urges Congress to take up gun policy legislation after Iowa school shooting

Following a Jan. 4 shooting at a high school in Perry, Iowa, the White House said Biden is monitoring the ensuing response and called on Congress to take up gun safety measures the administration has sought.

“Our hearts break for the families of the victims in yet another act of senseless gun violence,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing, adding that senior staff have been in contact with the office of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican.

Six people were shot, with a sixth grader killed who had been at the high school for a breakfast program. The 17-year-old shooter then killed himself.

In response to the May 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in which a gunman armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle killed 19 children and two teachers, Congress passed a modest gun safety bill — the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — that expanded the background check system for prospective gun buyers under 21 years old, closed a provision known as the “boyfriend loophole,” banning domestic abusers from purchasing firearms regardless of their marital status, and funded new investments in mental health resources.

Biden, who supported that legislation, also has called for Congress to pass additional measures, including a ban on semi-automatic rifles, shotguns and pistols fed by ammunition magazines of various capacities — commonly called an “assault weapons ban” — and universal background check legislation.

“It’s only the fourth day in the new year and we are already faced with yet another horrific school shooting,” Jean-Pierre said. “And the question that we ask is: ‘When will enough be enough?’ The questions that families ask and victims of families ask is: ‘When will it be enough?'”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has called for a total ban on AR- or AK-style semi-automatic weapons, which allow a shooter to maintain a steady rate of fire limited by the need to reload once the magazine is depleted, similar to the 1994 ban that Congress let lapse 10 years later.

The bishops also support limitations on civilian access to high-capacity ammunition magazines. The 1994 crime bill banned ownership of magazines with capacity for more than 10 rounds.

Catholic prayer vigil marks third anniversary of Jan. 6 Capitol riot

An interfaith prayer vigil co-hosted by a Catholic group marks the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The Franciscan Action Network said faith leaders will deliver reflections on sacred Scripture and reflections on the attack and the election year ahead.

Biden marks the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by delivering remarks on democracy in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where George Washington’s Continental Army encamped 1777-1778 during the Revolutionary War.

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