Legal Divide Continues Over Obama's Executive Amnesty

The mayors of 30 U.S. cities and leaders in 12 states have filed legal briefs supporting President Barack Obama's action on immigration reform, while the authorities in 26 other states have risen in support of litigation to block it, spearheaded by the Texas attorney general who says it's unconstitutional.

The divide is mounting as members of both sides speak out, setting up a legal debacle that parallels in many ways the ideological and political divide across the country, The Wall Street Journal reported.

In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio, a liberal Democrat, called on others to support the Obama plan, the Journal noted. "Delaying implementation of the president's executive action will further hurt our families, negatively impact our economies, and create unnecessary insecurity in our communities," he said in a statement as a legal brief was filed in the case.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argues that Obama has overstepped his bounds with the legislation that would allow an estimated 4 million undocumented immigrants to remain in the U.S., the Journal said. Obama, said Matthew Thompson, "lacks the authority to grant this amnesty" calling the president's executive order a "brazen and illegal abuse of power."

While cities and states take sides in the debate, conservatives are angry that Republican congressional leaders have refused to put up a fight with Obama on immigration, noting that they would not withhold Department of Homeland Security funds over the president's amnesty tactics, The Washington Times noted.

"If Republican leaders were not willing to use Congress' power of the purse — the most potent weapon possessed by lawmakers to restrict a president — to stop a brazen unconstitutional act, conservatives reasoned, would the GOP-controlled Congress ever go to the mat to fight Mr. Obama?" the Times questioned of the newly weakened strategy of Hill Republicans.

As state coalitions grow, a federal judge, who heard the case on Jan. 15, has yet to rule on an injunction request that would stop Obama's order from moving ahead until the lawsuits against it had moved through the courts, the Associated Press said.

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