(Bloomberg) —The White House has ordered the U.S. Justice Department to jump into Texas’s battle to force its cities and elected local officials to comply with the state’s tough sanctuary-city ban, which makes it a crime to shelter some undocumented immigrants from deportation, according to one of the lawyers leading the opposition.

Luis Roberto Vera Jr., national general counsel of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), said he received email notification Monday from Justice Department that it will soon file court documents to support Texas in the rapidly expanding legal challenge over the state’s ban. The message said U.S. lawyers will also appear at a June 26 San Antonio federal court hearing on whether the ban should be blocked before it can take effect Sept. 1, Vera said.

Texas’s ban goes several steps further than President Donald Trump’s proposed policy against sanctuary cities, which has been placed on hold by a different federal court. Texas’s ban seeks to punish cities and elected officials with stiff financial penalties, potential jail time and removal from office for failing to fully endorse and cooperate with federal immigration policies.