Texas is to lead a coalition of no less than 17 states that intend to sue the Obama administration over the President’s recent decision to take executive action to implement immigration reform. The Southern District of Texas’s federal court saw the filing of the lawsuit yesterday by governor-elect Greg Abbott, with many other states in the south and the mid-west, including Alabama, Idaho, Indiana and Georgia, joining in.
Abbott claims that the US constitution is being trampled over by Obama’s actions for immigration reform, which will provide protection from deportation and even work permits for more than four million undocumented immigrants already living in the country.
“The president’s actions violates his constitutional duty to faithfully enforce immigration laws that were duly enacted by Congress, circumvents the will of the American people and is an affront to the families and individuals who follow our laws to legally immigrate to the United States,” a statement on Abbott’s website claims. “The State of Texas will assert a legal action against President Obama’s unconstitutional abuse of power.”
Abbott told Fox News that the president simply does not have the legal right to provide people who are not currently being prosecuted with rights, despite the Obama administration’s claims to the contrary. Abbott says the take care clause in the constitution forbids the president from rewriting the laws set by Congress to suit his own agenda.