White House pushes back on Abbott-led, 17-state immigration lawsuit
WASHINGTON — A day after Texas Governor-elect Greg Abbott unveiled a 17-state lawsuit challenging President Obama’s immigration policies — and one day before Abbott meets with Obama — the White House forcefully rejected claims the president overreached his authority.
“I don’t know if they’ll have an opportunity to discuss that,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said at his daily briefing. But he added, “I wouldn’t be surprised if Governor-elect Abbott chose to raise that himself in the meeting.”
Abbott, the state’s attorney general, has boasted to voters that he views his job as an ongoing effort to use the courts to roll back regulations and federal power. This is his 31st lawsuit against the president.
But Earnest predicted it will fail because the immigration actions Obama announced Nov. 20 fit well within executive authority. Obama announced that he’ll shield about 5 million people in the country illegally from deportation.
“The law here and the precedent here is pretty clear as it relates to the legal authority that the president invoked,” Earnest said. “….We’ve heard from the Supreme Court who’s examined this issue and ruled that federal officials have quote `broad discretion over priorities in enforcing immigration law.’ The United States Congress in fact, not too long ago, directed the executive branch to set enforcement priorities. In creating the Department of Homeland Security, Congress charged the department with the responsibility for quote ‘establishing national immigration enforcement policies and priorities.’
“That’s exactly what the president has talked about in the course of this executive action,” Earnest said.
The president will meet Friday with a half-dozen governors-elect at the White House.
The others are Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Bill Walker of Alaska, Bruce Rauner of Illinois, Larry Hogan of Maryland, and Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, the lone Democrat in the group.