Barack Obama’s executive actions challenged by multi-state coalition

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Barack Obama signing law/executive action

On Monday, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange announced that the state has joined 26 others in filing a merits brief with the U.S. Supreme Court opposing executive actions by President Barack Obama. The statement claims Obama’s actions will grant amnesty to four million illegal immigrants.

The other states involved in the lawsuit include Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

The brief contends that the administration’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) is “unconstitutional and defies states’ rights.” The law allows illegal immigrants, who have lived in the country since 2010 and have children who are American citizens or lawful permanent residents, to apply for a renewable, three year work permit and avoid deportation.

Texas has not only noted the unconstitutionality of the law, but has added that the added burden and expense of issuing driver’s license to undocumented immigrants. Further, a Texas court ruled that the new law violates the tenets of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.

According to a 2015 study by the Migration Policy Institute, about 3.6 million undocumented immigrants would be eligible for DAPA. The report further notes that “more than 10 million people live in households with at least one potentially DAPA-eligible adult, including some 4.3 million children under age 18 – an estimated 85 percent of whom are U.S. citizens.”

“The president’s immigration order is an outright attempt to sidestep the power of Congress which had earlier refused to pass blanket amnesty for millions of illegal aliens,” Strange said in the statement. “This president has demonstrated over and over the will to circumvent Congress and the limits on his own constitutional authority in order to achieve a political goal.”

The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments over the law, which has been delayed until all legal proceedings are completed, on April 18.

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