AUSTIN, Texas — The Supreme Court has ruled to extend the stay on Texas SB 4 on Monday. The heavily controversial law, known as Senate Bill 4, gave law enforcement at the border the authority to arrest migrants suspected of illegally crossing.

The stay, previously set by the Supreme Court, would have expired Monday afternoon.

The new law is Texas’ latest attempt at aggressively deterring migrants from crossing the Rio Grande, including razor wire at the border, busing migrants to Democrat-led states, and filing multiple lawsuits against the Biden administration.

The Texas Attorney General has said the state’s law mirrored federal law and “was adopted to address the ongoing crisis at the southern border, which hurts Texans more than anyone else.”

The Biden administration sued to strike down the measure, arguing it would usurp core federal authority on immigration, damage international relations and create chaos in administering immigration law. Civil rights groups have argued the law could lead to civil rights violations and racial profiling.

A federal judge in Texas struck down the law in late February, but the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals quickly stayed that ruling, leading the federal government to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court in 2012 struck down key parts of an Arizona law that would have allowed police to arrest people for federal immigration violations, often referred to by opponents as the “show me your papers” bill. The divided high court found then that the impasse in Washington over immigration reform did not justify state intrusion.

The battle over the Texas immigration law is one of multiple legal disputes between Texas officials and the Biden administration over how far the state can go to patrol the Texas-Mexico border and prevent illegal border crossings.

Several Republican governors have backed Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts, saying the federal government is not doing enough to enforce existing immigration laws.

The case is unfolding as record numbers of asylum seekers arrive in the United States and immigration emerges as a central issue in the 2024 election.