A further seven states have joined the lawsuit challenging President Obama over his decision to take executive action to prevent up to five million undocumented immigrants being deported from the United States. This brings the number of states involved in the action to 24, according to Texas attorney general Greg Abbott.
Arizona, Arkansas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Florida, Michigan and Ohio are the seven new states to join the original 17 states that began the legal action last week in the US district court, claiming that the president was exceeding his authority by enacting immigration reform without the approval of Congress and violating federal law and the US constitution.
Obama supporters, on the other hand, believe that taking executive action was the only thing the president could do given that Congress has been willfully avoiding its responsibilities on this issue. “This action taken by the president is an important first step,” claims LA County Sheriff’s chief James R Lopez. “In the immigrant communities that we serve, dialogue is important. We cannot do our job without the assistance of everyone in the community, including those who heretofore have had a great fear of reporting crime for fear of being identified as undocumented.”
Likewise, the founder of the Sojourners community based in Washington, political activist and evangelical Christian writer Jim Wallis, believes that people all over the United States are going to be helped by Obama’s actions.