March 29, 2024

Texas leads coalition of states suing Obama for immigration executive action

Texas Attorney General and Gov.-elect Greg Abbott speaks against President Barack Obama’s executive order on immigration at the Price Daniel Building in Austin, Texas, on Monday, Nov. 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Jay Janner)

Texas is leading a multi-state coalition suing President Obama’s administration for its executive action on immigration.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges that Obama’s executive action “tramples the U.S. Constitution’s Take Care Clause” as well as federal law.

The states of Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin — and the governors of Mississippi, Maine, North Carolina and Idaho — have joined the State of Texas as plaintiffs, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in the Southern District of Texas.

“President’s job is to enforce the law — not to make them,” Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said at a press conference in Austin on Wednesday formally announcing the lawsuit.

Days after Obama’s Nov. 20 announcement that he would protect upwards of 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation via executive action, Abbott vowed “swift action,” CBS Houston reported.

Obama is set to meet with Abbott and other governors-elect Friday at the White House “to discuss the ways in which the administration can partner with states in promoting economic opportunity and expanding security for middle class Americans,” according to the Dallas Morning News.

Abbott, a Republican, was elected last month to succeed outgoing Gov. Rick Perry. This will be Abbott’s 31st lawsuit against the federal government since 2009.

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