Conn Carroll:
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Monday that both Nevada and Tennessee have joined the Lone Star state’s challenge of President Obama’s executive amnesty, bringing the total number of states fighting Obama’s unilateral immigration policies to 26.
“Texas is proud to lead a coalition that now includes a majority of the United States standing up against the President’s rogue actions,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “The momentum against the President’s lawlessness continues to build with Tennessee and Nevada joining the effort to protect our states from the economic and public safety implications of illegal amnesty. As President Obama himself has said numerous times, he lacks the authority to impose amnesty. His actions represent a blatant case of overreach and clear abuse of power.”
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen already heard oral arguments in the case January 15th, where Texas argued that Obama’s amnesty would create a new wave of illegal immigration that would burden state governments. “This is the second time they’ve done it in two years,” Texas attorney Andrew Oldham told Hanen. “People think: They’ve done it twice in two years. Maybe they’ll do it again in 2016.”
The American people are fighting President Jarrett and the czars. Awesome!
Obama hasn’t actually granted anyone amnesty, nor has he permanently changed the legal status of any undocumented aliens covered by his policy changes. All he has changed are immigration enforcement priorities. It’s entirely within the scope of his Executive authority to do so.
Congress can respond legislatively, by overhauling immigration laws that fail to address the reality of the current immigration situation. Doing so is their job. They’re dodging it for political reasons. They don’t want to further alienate Hispanic voters, but at the same time they want to pander to hardliners who seem to believe that 11 million people can actually be deported. They’re avoiding that political dilemma by doing nothing, while attempting to shift all blame to the Executive Branch. The lawsuits are nothing more than a part of that effort.
@Greg: Oh! thank you so very much. Raced home today just to read your latest post. I don’t think I can make it to tomorrow without another enlightening tome on some aspect of the lives of the “Great Unwashed” in “Flyover Country”.