Mexican President López Obrador says his country will not accept deportations from Texas as he slams controversial 'anti-immigrant' law that will allow cops to arrest migrants for illegally crossing the border

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blasted Texas over a law that would grant police officers the power to arrest people who illegally cross the United States-Mexico border and vowed that Mexico will not accept anyone deported from the state.

'I will let it be known right away, if they tried to deport, for example, which is not their responsibility, we would not accept deportations from the Texas government,' López Obrador said Wednesday during his daily press briefing at the National Palace in Mexico City.

The law, known as Senate Bill 4, 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.  

Cops would be allowed to place people under arrest if they are seen crossing the border illegally in counties bordering Mexico. 

The controversial law could be also enforced elsewhere in Texas if someone is arrested on suspicion of another violation, and a fingerprint taken during jail booking links them to a suspected re-entry violation. It likely would not come into play during a routine traffic stop.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced Wednesday that Mexico will not accept deportations from Texas, which is seeking to enforce a law that would allow police officers to arrest people stopped for illegally crossing the United States-Mexico border 

A group of migrants approach the Texas National Guard at a makeshift camp at the United States-Mexico border on the Rio Grande on Wednesday

A U.S. Border Patrol agent searches a group of migrants who were let through by Texas National Guard in El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday

'We are against this draconian law, completely opposite, contrary to human rights, a completely dehumanized law, anti-Christian, unjust, violating precepts, norms of human coexistence, not only international law, but even violating the Bible,' López Obrador said. 

'The federal government in the United States is against this decision and we do not want to anticipate what we could do in case Texas, the governor and all of these anti-immigrant, anti-Mexican people want to do,' López Obrador added. 

Earlier Tuesday, a divided Supreme Court had allowed Texas to begin enforcing a law and provided the police broad powers to apprehend undocumented migrants suspected of crossing Texas border with Mexico.

The conservative majority order had rejected an emergency application from the administration of President Joe Biden administration, which claimed the law was in violation of federal authority and would create chaos in immigration law.

The leftist Mexican president slammed Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott and said that only the federal government could rule on the status of undocumented immigrants in the United States. 

On Tuesday, Iowa passed a bill in which a person entering the state after previously being denied entry to the U.S. would be charged with an aggravated misdemeanor, or a felony under some circumstances, including when arrested while committing a different felony.

At least 100 migrants camped out on the United States side of Rio Grande awaiting to be allowed to cross on Wednesday

Lawmakers in New Hampshire are also working on drafting a bill that would allow the police the power to bring trespassing charges against people suspected of illegally entering the U.S. from Canada. 

Republicans in Georgia have a bill in place that will require some cities and counties to seek agreements to perform some immigration-related enforcement in jails to help the federal government. 

The move comes almost one month after police accused a Venezuelan man of beating nursing student Laken Riley to death on the University of Georgia campus.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has registered 961,537 encounters with migrants who illegally crossed the border through the first four months of fiscal year 2024.

CBP agents reported 176,205 encounters in January, a significant decrease compared to December  when 301,983 interdictions of migrants were made.