Lawsuit Against Obama Immigration Policy Weeks Away, Steve King Says

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Lawmakers to Sue Over Obama Immigration Policy

Lawmakers to sue White House over President's Executive Order to stop deporting certain undocumented immigrants.

Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King told The Daily Caller that the immigration lawsuit he is leading against President Barack Obama should be filed within weeks.

King’s lawsuit is a response to Obama's new immigration policy announced in June under executive order, an order he believes is unconstitutional.

"If the president can just pick and choose the laws he wants to enforce, you get a breakdown in the constitutional order because he's charged with enforcing the laws," said Steven Camarota, Director of the Research Center for Immigration Studies, to Fox News in support of King's argument.

Though Camarota said, "it's very tough" to win - unless he can show that an act of Congress is being nullified by the president than you might have standing or the right to sue.

Obama laid out details of his new immigration policy that will stop deporting and will issue work permits to up to 800,000 young undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children and have never committed a crime.

The congressman detailed a meeting held last Tuesday with "potential co-plaintiffs" interest in signing on to King's lawsuit.

According to King, “If the case is heard on the merits, we’re in an excellent position to succeed.”

King is worried that letting Obama use an executive order to bypass Congress could lead to a "dangerous precedent."

“My ideal would be to ask for a writ of mandamus to direct the president to enforce the law,” King told the Caller. “That might be hard. Behind that would be to ask for an injunction to block his implementation because it is a constitutional overreach.”

Under the new policy, undocumented immigrants will be immune from deportation if they were brought to the United States before they turned 16 and are younger than 30, have been in the country for at least five continuous years, have no criminal history, graduated from a U.S. high school or earned a GED, or served in the military.  Those who qualify for the program can apply for a work permit that will be good for two years with no limits on how many times it can be renewed.

"Well, the question is, can he get his colleagues to try to make the issue clear that it's not really an immigration issue, it's fundamentally a constitutional issue?" Camarota said.

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