The Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted its freeze of a Texas immigration law which allows state and local law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants and empowers state judges to deport them.

The Court’s six conservative justices dismissed the Biden administration’s emergency appeal, allowing the law to remain in effect while the issue is adjudicated by lower courts, while the Court’s three liberal justices dissented.

The decision comes after Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued an administrative stay on the law followed by two extensions of the pause, the most recent coming down on Monday. Alito had said that the latest pause was indefinite, to be continued until a “further order” from him or the Supreme Court.

The law’s defenders and Texas officials have resisted the Department of Justice’s claims that the law usurps federal power, arguing that the recent record surge in illegal immigration constitutes an “invasion” which the state is empowered to repel under the State War Clause of the Constitution.