SB 4 prohibits local officials from undertaking any particularized assessment of suspected criminality. Rather, it mandates that they effect a seizure simply because it was requested by ICE, who issues that request based upon suspicion that the subject of the request is removable, not based on suspicion of a crime. SB 4 imposes this mandate subject to a single exception: where the subject of the request “has provided proof that the person is a citizen of the United States or that the person has lawful immigration status in the United States, such as a Texas driver’s license or similar government-issued identification.” Under SB 4, this assessment of immigration status must be made by local officials, who are generally not trained in the complex field of immigration status determinations, and who, if they are mistaken, face the risks of financial penalties, removal from office, and criminal prosecution by Defendants on the one hand, or wrongfully detaining a citizen or lawfully present immigrant, and any related liability, on the other.

The Court finds, for the reasons discussed above, that an inadequate assessment of probable cause is certain to follow in every scenario in which SB 4 is applied, regardless of whether some applications of SB 4 might potentially be unconstitutional in other ways. The Court therefore concludes that Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims that the provisions of SB 4 that require local entities to fulfill all ICE detainer requests.