If you want to sue President Barack Obama over his executive order granting amnesty from deportation to 5 million illegal aliens, you'd better get in line — "America's toughest sheriff" and 18 states beat you to it.
Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio has filed a lawsuit in federal District Court charging that Obama overstepped his legal authority.
Arpaio's lawsuit is the second the Obama administration is facing over his executive action —18 states, led by Texas Attorney General and Gov.-elect Greg Abbott, have formed a coalition to challenge Obama's immigration edict in federal court,
the Miami Herald notes.
In addition, Speaker of the House John Boehner has indicated that congressional Republicans may file suit against Obama over the immigration rulings, The Hill reports.
However, Sheriff Joe got there first, with a lawsuit filed before Judge Beryl A. Howell, an Obama appointee, which states that federal authorities have been derelict in deporting illegal aliens convicted of crimes,
The Hill notes, and that Obama violated the Constitution by not first obtaining approval of Congress.
Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch, representing Arpaio, said in his court filing: "President Obama and others recite that the immigration system of the United States is broken. It is unmistakable that the only thing that is broken about the nation's immigration laws is that the defendants are determined to break those laws."
In the filing, Arpaio states that many of the illegal immigrants in Maricopa County who were arrested in 2014 were repeat offenders who should have been deported for previous offenses, The Hill notes.
The suit states: "Obama’s new amnesty program will greatly increase the burden and disruption of the sheriff’s duties,"
The Christian Science Monitor reports.
Over the course of an eight-month period, Arpaio's lawsuit notes, the department referred over 4,000 detainees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and "over 36 percent keep coming back," said the Monitor notes, which called the case a "legal Hail Mary" against Obama's immigration plans.
Klayman said in the suit: "The president cannot simply announce new rules and implement them by giving a speech.
"This is not a question about immigration enforcement. It’s a question about the Constitution. It’s a question about whether the president can override Congress. The president, he is terrible. He is trashing the Constitution," Klayman said, according to The Hill.
Arpaio, sheriff since 1993, has butted heads with the Obama administration frequently and his office currently is under a federal monitor's control after being accused of racial profiling on Latinos,
Bloomberg News reports.
The government has asked Howell to throw out the case on the grounds that it is a "generalized disagreement with the federal government’s immigration policy" which "does not directly impact him (Arpaio)," Bloomberg reported.
However, The Hill notes that Arpaio's suit says the sheriff, who's unpopular with Hispanic immigrants, could face "bodily harm or death" because more illegal aliens will be allowed to remain on the streets.
Howell seemed skeptical of Arpaio's suit, The Hill reported, commenting: “If Congress doesn’t like it, doesn’t Congress have the power to step in and address what misappropriation they think is going on here?"
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