Texas and 19 other states suing over US President Barack Obama’s executive order allowing as many as 4 million undocumented immigrants to stay in the US asked a federal judge to block that policy while their lawsuit is being decided.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said immigration officials must be immediately barred from processing any paperwork for immigrants seeking protection from deportation.
“It will be difficult or impossible to undo the president’s lawlessness after the defendants start granting applications,” Abbott, a Republican who was elected governor last month, said in a court filing.
Arizona, Florida and Ohio have joined the 17-state coalition, led by Texas, which sued the Obama administration on Wednesday, seeking to overturn the president’s unilateral change to the nation’s immigration policy.
The states claim Obama violated the US Constitution and does not have authority to grant federal benefits, such as social security and Medicare, to people who enter the country illegally.
Obama’s order grants quasi-legal status to more than a third of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the US.
Undocumented immigrants must have been in the country for more than five years or have a child who is a US citizen, or have been brought to the US themselves as children, to qualify for US work permits and be protected from deportation under the new policy. They must also pass a criminal background check.
US Department of Justice spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle did not immediately return telephone and e-mail messages after regular business hours yesterday seeking comment on the states’ court filing.
More than 1,000 undocumented immigrants, many of them unaccompanied children, have been crossing the border into Texas daily.
The states fear an even larger wave of immigrants is set to try and enter the US illegally on the mistaken belief Obama’s new policy would let them stay, according to papers filed in federal court in Brownsville, across the border from Mexico.
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