Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt spoke to a congressional committee Wednesday about President Obama's executive order on immigration, saying it's an unconstitutional overreach of power. Reno Public Radio's Michelle Bliss reports.
While testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Laxalt insisted that the lawsuit challenging Obama's executive order "...is not about immigration. It's not about politics. It's about the rule of law and our constitutional system. This lawsuit transcends policy differences and seeks to prevent legislation from being usurped by executive fiat."
Laxalt recently added Nevada to the lawsuit, which has 25 other states on board now. Their goal is to block the president's order which would spare almost 5 million people in the country illegally from deportation.
In his testimony, Laxalt said states must protect themselves from the costs inflicted on them by this decision, like the expense of issuing driver's licenses to this population. Nevada Congresswoman Dina Titus disagrees. She reached out to Laxalt with this to say:
"Not implementing the president's actions is not only morally indefensible but also economically foolish."
Titus spoke on the House floor and wrote to Laxalt directly, referencing a federal report finding that the country stands to gain financially from the president's order, which it says will increase the country's gross domestic product by expanding the labor force.
Last week, a federal judge temporarily halted implementation of the order, and a federal appeals court will now hear the lawsuit.
