17 states test Obama on immigration

• Incoming Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is challenging President Barack Obama's immigration action in court


• Abbott says 16 other states, most with Republican governors, are joining Texas in the lawsuit


• He said Obama's move to halt some deportations exceeds the president's constitutional authority

Washington (CNN) -- Texas is leading a group of 17 states -- all but two with Republican governors -- that are suing to block President Barack Obama's executive overhaul of U.S. immigration and deportation rules.

The state's incoming governor, Greg Abbott, announced the effort to have courts block Obama from implementing the actions he announced last month during a Wednesday afternoon news conference.

"The constitution prescribes immigration policy be fixed by Congress -- not by presidential fiat," said Abbott, the Texas attorney general who won the governor's race in November and has since become the highest-profile GOP critic of Obama's immigration policies.

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He said Obama's decision to stop deportations for undocumented immigrants who are the parents of U.S. citizens -- the centerpiece of the executive action -- is "a decision to openly tolerate" violations of the U.S. law.

"Texas is uniquely qualified to challenge the president's executive order," Abbott said. He pointed to Obama's 2012 order deferring the deportation of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children and had lived in the country for years, and said Texas has seen an influx of immigrants since then.

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"Basically, we are asking for the court to require the president to go through the prescribed constitutional process of enforcing laws passed by Congress rather than making them up himself," Abbott said.

Abbott said the states joining Texas in the lawsuit are Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

He said other states could join the lawsuit.