Mexico has filed a brief in a U.S. court in support of the U.S. Justice Department’s opposition to a Republican-backed Texas law that would give state authorities the power to arrest and prosecute migrants and asylum seekers suspected of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, reports said. Reuters.

“Mexico is deeply concerned that the law will be applied in a discriminatory manner and fears that its application will result in the harassment, detention, removal, and undue criminalization of Mexican nationals and persons of Latin American descent,” the document said.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday to allow a Texas law passed by Republicans that allows authorities to arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to go into effect, rejecting a request by President Joe Biden’s administration that argued the law would violate the U.S. Constitution, Reuters reported.

The US Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority, and on Tuesday its three liberal justices dissented from their conservative colleagues. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissenting from fellow liberal Ketanji Brown Jackson, said the Supreme Court’s decision would lead to “continued chaos and crisis in immigration enforcement.” A separate opinion was also written by judge Olena Kagan from Svoboda.

What Texas law says

Last December, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a law known as SB 4 that allows state law enforcement agencies to arrest people suspected of entering the United States illegally, giving local police powers long delegated to the US government. Abbott said the law was necessary because of the Biden administration’s failure to enforce federal laws that criminalize illegal entry or re-entry, saying at a Dec. 18 news conference that “Biden’s willful inaction has left Texas in the lurch.”

The Democratic president’s handling of a record number of immigrants caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border during his presidency has drawn sharp criticism from Republicans. Abbott and other Republicans said Biden should have followed the restrictive policies of former President Donald Trump, their party’s nominee who will again challenge Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election.

Under Texas law, illegal entry or re-entry into Texas is a state felony punishable by 180 days to 20 years in prison. Under it, magistrate judges in Texas would be required to order migrants back to Mexico, with a sentence of up to 20 years for those who refuse to comply.

Read also: USA: The Republican governor of Texas and the federal government in Washington dispute their authority over the border attacked by migrants