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The Supreme Court on Tuesday dealt a blow to the Biden administration's attempts to keep the US border open – allowing Texas to enforce a new law giving local police the power to arrest migrants.

With three liberal justices dissenting, the conservative-majority court rejected an emergency request by the Biden administration which claimed that states have no authority to legislate on immigration.

The ruling means that Texas' law can go into effect while litigation continues in lower courts.

The law, SB4, allows police to arrest migrants who illegally cross into the United States from Mexico, and imposes criminal penalties. It also empowers judges to deport people to Mexico.

"Texas is the nation’s first-line defense against transnational violence and has been forced to deal with the deadly consequences of the federal government’s inability or unwillingness to protect the border," Texas argued in court papers.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said in court filings that Texas' law is "flatly inconsistent" with Supreme Court precedent dating back 100 years.

"Those decisions recognize that the authority to admit and remove noncitizens is a core responsibility of the national government, and that where Congress has enacted a law addressing those issues, state law is preempted," she said, adding that the appeals court did not explain its reasoning for allowing the law to go into effect.