Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today released the following statement after the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in the state’s challenge to President Obama’s executive action on immigration:
“In deciding to hear this case, the Supreme Court recognizes the importance of the separation of powers. As federal courts have already ruled three times, there are limits to the President’s authority, and those limits enacted by Congress were exceeded when the President unilaterally sought to grant ‘lawful presence’ to more than 4 million unauthorized aliens who are in this country unlawfully. The Court should affirm what President Obama said himself on more than 20 occasions: that he cannot unilaterally rewrite congressional laws and circumvent the people’s representatives.”
Texas leads a 26-state coalition against the president’s immigration plan. Federal courts have ruled in the states’ favor three times, most recently in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.