The Lone Star state filed a legal brief to support the temporary Travel restrictions from 7 countries. We believe in you, Texas!
The legal brief contrasted Obama’s Executive Order on giving quasi-legal status to illegal immigrants to President Trump’s order that is for national security.
Check it out:
Texas’ new amicus brief argues for broad executive power in the area of immigration, notwithstanding the state’s leadership of a successful legal challenge to President Barack Obama’s efforts to use executive actions to give quasi-legal status and work permits to millions more illegal immigrants.
“While Congress provided these detailed criteria to significantly restrict the Executive’s ability to unilaterally allow aliens to be lawfully present in the country, Congress simultaneously delegated the Executive broad discretionary authority to exclude aliens from the country,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Solicitor General Scott Keller wrote.
“Extending…constitutional rights as envisioned by plaintiffs would have grave implications, such as imposing delay, cost, and risk while courts scrutinize federal officials’ concerns with existing procedures for vetting aliens seeking entry into the country. When it comes to deciding the best way to use a sovereign’s power over its borders to manage risk, courts have long recognized that the political branches are uniquely well situated,” the Texas brief argues. “Plaintiffs’ calls for interference with this core executive power should thus be analyzed with intense skepticism.”
The brief, which urges the 9th Circuit Court to lift the restraining order issued earlier this month, also asserts that the Executive Order is not a ‘Muslim Ban’ because it is ‘religion-neutral’.
This is in contrast to the 18 states and the District of Columbia that oppose the ban:
A total of 18 states and the District of Columbia are opposing the travel ban at the 9th Circuit. A group of 15 states led by New York filed an amicus brief arguing that the Trump order is unconstitutional. Hawaii separately sought to intervene in the case and join the legal challenge, a move the appeals court rebuffed. However, Hawaii has its own federal lawsuit against the order pending in federal court in Honolulu. Virginia also brought its own suit, winning on Monday a preliminary injunction against part of Trump’s directive
Read more: Politico
The states that oppose the Executive Order to restrict travel from the 7 high-risk countries have cited the successful Texas opposition to Obama’s Order.
The Brief also asserts that on the one hand, Congress limited the ability of the Executive to unilaterally allow aliens to lawfully be in the country, conversely, it delegated extensive authority to the Executive to restrict entry into the country.
Is your state taking a side in this?
Let us know in the comments.
