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Opening Arguments

17 states to Obama: Nuh-uh

Nice to see Indiana in the vanguard once again, becoming one of 17 stares (led, naturally, by Texas) filing a lawsuit against President Obama's decision to create legal status for millions of illegal immigrants by executive action:

“The lawsuit raises three objections: that Obama violated the ‘Take Care Clause’ of the U.S. Constitution that limits the scope of presidential power; that the federal government violated rule-making procedures; and that the order will ‘exacerbate the humanitarian crisis along the southern border, which will affect increased state investment in law enforcement, health care and education.’

The immigration fight looked like it was going to be a separation-of-powers pissing match at the federal level, but there are obviously state interests, too. Actually, I think the states may have a slightly better shot than Congress. Obama is pretty much making new law with his very creative definition of "prosecutorial discretion," but all he's doing is formally embracing what presidents before him had done informally, which was basically to ignore illegal immigration and hope it would go away.

I don't know why Hispanics are so supportive of the initiative since it is by nature temporary and can be taken away by the next president. Perhaps because they're going by the lack of resolve historically shown by all, including the suddenly-peeved GOP.

Can people at least please stop talking about our "broken" immigration system? The law is not being followed. How can we know something is broken if we've never tried to use it? If they "fix" the law, why should I trust them to enforce that version any more than they have this one?

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