Texas Attorney General and Governor-elect Greg Abbott (R) on Monday said that the state plans to sue the Obama administration over the president’s executive action to the delay the deportation of about 5 million undocumented immigrants.
“Most everyone agrees the immigration system is broken, but executive fiat is not the way to fix it,” Abbott told reporters at the state capitol.
Abbott said that President Obama’s action violates the “take care” clause of the Constitution.
“At the constitutional convention itself, they considered whether or not the president should have the authority to dispense with enforcing certain laws, and they decided no, they didn’t want to give the president that authority,” he said, referencing the founding fathers.
The attorney general emphasized that the lawsuit would not be a political move.
“The president has crossed the line from politics to endangering the constitutional structure,” Abbott said. “Protecting constitutional authority (is) more important than any other single issue.”
Abbott told reporters that he would decided whether to follow through on the lawsuit in two weeks.
