The governor-elect of the state of Texas, Attorney General Greg Abbott, says that the lawsuit filed against President Obama by his state and a number of other states is to prevent the US constitution being harmed by the president’s decision to take executive action over immigration reform.
Last Wednesday a lawsuit was filed against the White House by 17 states. The legal action was led by Abbott, who next month becomes the governor of Texas, replacing Rick Perry. Abbott does believe that immigration reform is necessary in the United States; however, he says that it is up to Congress to address the problem and is vehemently opposed to the president taking on the task himself.
“What we’re suing for is actually the greater harm, and that is harm to the constitution by empowering the president of the United States to enact legislation on his own without going through Congress,” Abbott told Chuck Todd from the NBC News show Meet the Press yesterday. Abbott also insists that the result of Obama’s executive action will be to encourage another influx of undocumented immigrants into the United States and says that the system needs to be improved by both Congress and the president working together.
The biggest changes to immigration law in the United States in 30 years was signed into law by the president in November, freeing millions of undocumented immigrants from the fear of being deported for at least three years. This decision infuriated many conservative lawmakers.