McCrory among group suing Obama over immigration action

Opposition to President Obama’s executive actions on immigration continues to persist in Republican circles — and North Carolina’s Gov. Pat McCrory is among representatives from 25 states taking legal action.

McCrory is part of a lawsuit filed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott challenging Obama’s executive actions. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen began hearing the case last week in Brownsville, Texas.

The president’s immigration orders include programs regarding visa processes, expanding the demographics of unlawful residents permitted to stay in the country and potentially making unauthorized immigrants eligible for Medicare and Social Security.

“The president is abdicating his responsibility to faithfully enforce laws that were duly enacted by Congress and attempting to rewrite immigration laws, which he has no authority to do,” Abbott said in a statement.

N.C. Lt. Gov. Dan Forest wrote a letter in December to N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper asking him to have the state officially join the suit. Cooper, a Democrat widely expected to run for governor in 2016, said he would monitor the suit but has taken no further action.

Abbott accused Obama of violating the Constitution’s Take Care Clause and the Administrative Procedure Act, which limit the president’s power and ensure laws are executed faithfully. Obama has said his actions do not deviate from precedent.

“There are actions I have the legal authority to take as president — the same kinds of actions taken by Democratic and Republican presidents before me — that will help make our immigration system more fair and more just,” Obama said when he announced the actions.

America’s Voice, a pro-immigration group, believes Hanen’s past opinions foreshadow his eventual decision.

In a report, the group pointed to a case in which a 10-year-old girl was caught while being smuggled across the Mexican border to her mother in Virginia. Hanen issued an order condemning the Department of Homeland Security for not arresting the mother who arranged the smuggling.

Regardless of Hanen’s decision at the district court level, the lawsuit will have to pass through an appellate review and then possibly to the U.S. Supreme Court to have any effect on Obama’s actions.

“Unless this is expedited in any way, this is a very long process,” said Jack Holtzman, an attorney at the N.C. Justice Center.

In the meantime, congressional Republicans are taking legislative action to overturn Obama’s immigration policies.

House Speaker John Boehner led the Republican-controlled House to pass a bill Jan. 14 that funds the Department of Homeland Security through the end of the year — except for the programs responsible for carrying out Obama’s immigration plan.

The bill will move on to the Senate, but even if it passes, Obama is expected to veto it. Furthermore, it is unclear whether the bill can stall Obama’s immigration actions, as they are largely self-funded, said Paul Cuadros, a professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

“The Republicans’ time in Congress would be better spent drafting immigration legislation that would deal with this issue of people being in the country unauthorized rather than trying to defund a budget for homeland security to negate the President’s executive action,” Cuadros said.

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