Governors Greg Abbott of Texas, Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, and Kim Reynolds of Iowa.Bob Daemmrich/ZUMA

On April 30, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma signed HB 4156, enabling state law enforcement to arrest undocumented immigrants. The measure was, in many ways, radical. For more than a century, immigration enforcement has been almost exclusively the domain of the federal government. But, across the country, Republicans on the state level are attempting to undo settled law to take immigration policing and deportations into their hands.

The most infamous example is in Texas. In 2023, lawmakers passed SB 4, which makes it a state crime to cross the border into Texas between ports of entry. The law allows police officers to detain people suspected of entering the state illegally and empowers state judges to order deportations. (Initial punishment for a misdemeanor would carry jail time and repeat offenders could face felony charges and up to 20 years in prison.) Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), has called the measure “the most extreme anti-immigrant state law in the last 50 years, bar none.”

And this extreme law is spreading, with copycat anti-immigration bills cropping up in Republican-led states across the country. At least nine states have considered bills mirroring SB 4 so far this year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In March, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds approved legislation, to go into effect in July, criminalizing “illegal........

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