AUSTIN, Texas
(AP) — Texas is leading a 17-state coalition suing over President Barack
Obama's recently announced executive actions on immigration, arguing in
a lawsuit filed Wednesday that the move "tramples" key portions of the
U.S. Constitution.
Many top
Republicans have denounced Obama's unilateral move, which was designed
to spare as many as 5 million people living illegally in the United
States from deportation.
But Texas
Gov.-elect Greg Abbott took it a step further, filing a formal legal
challenge in federal court in the Southern District of Texas. His state
is joined by 16 other mostly conservative states, largely in the south
and Midwest, such as Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana and the Carolinas.
The states
aren't seeking monetary damages, but instead want the courts to block
Obama's actions.
The lawsuit
could make things awkward come Friday, when Abbott travels to Washington
to meet with Obama as part of a group of newly elected governors.
Under Obama's
order, announced Nov. 20, protection from deportation and the right to
work will be extended to an estimated 4.1 million parents of U.S.
citizens and legal permanent residents who have lived in the U.S. for at
least five years and to hundreds of thousands more young people.
The lawsuit
raises three objections: that Obama violated the "Take Care Clause" of
the U.S. Constitution that Abbott said limits the scope of presidential
power; that the federal government didn't follow proper rulemaking
procedures; and that the order will "exacerbate the humanitarian crisis
along the southern border, which will affect increased state investment
in law enforcement, health care and education."
Abbott said
Obama's actions "directly violate a fundamental promise to the American
people" and that it was up to the president to "execute the law, not de
facto make law."
Republican
presidents, including Ronald Reagan, have issued past executive orders
pertaining to immigration. Abbott said those were in response to actions
by Congress — unlike Obama, who Abbott said acted in lieu of
congressional approval.
Overwhelmingly
elected governor last month, Abbott has been Texas attorney general
since 2002. Wednesday marks the 31st time he has sued the federal
government since Obama took office.
Many of those
were over environmental regulations or the White House's signature
health care law, however. The only other high-profile lawsuit against
Obama's executive order has come on behalf of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Earlier this
week, House Majority Leader John Boehner told lawmakers the GOP-led
House may vote to undo Obama's executive action, but the move would be
mostly symbolic, as Obama would certainly veto such legislation and the
Democratic-led Senate wouldn't go for it, either.
Potential 2016
presidential candidate and current Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who leaves
office in January, also spoke out against the executive order earlier
Wednesday, saying it could trigger a new flood of people pouring across
the Texas-Mexico border and create chaos that could be exploited by
drug- and people-smugglers.
Perry said
hours before Abbott's announcement that Obama's 2012 executive order
delaying the deportation of children brought into the U.S. illegally by
their parents triggered an unprecedented wave of unaccompanied minors
and families, mostly from Central America, crossing into the U.S. this
summer.
"In effect, his
action placed a neon sign on our border, assuring people that they could
ignore the law of the United States," said Perry, who has deployed up to
1,000 National Guard troops to the border.
Abbott said his
state can already predict the future effects of Obama's executive action
based on the 2012 order.
"Texas has been
at the epicenter of the results of the president's executive action,"
Abbott said.
The federal
lawsuit involves the following states: Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana,
Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North
Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and
Wisconsin.