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Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) today joined a group of 43 Senate Republicans in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court against President Obama’s November 2014 executive actions on immigration. The brief is led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and is in support of a challenge to the immigration orders by a majority of the nation’s governors and state attorneys general. Rubio has also participated in an amicus brief at the Circuit Court level.

The Supreme Court took up this case (United States of America v. State of Texas) after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in November of 2015 affirmed a preliminary injunction by a federal district court in Brownsville, Texas blocking the Obama Administration from moving forward with its executive actions on immigration. The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on this case on April 18^th.

“Given that the Executive has asserted that the acts challenged here are not even subject to judicial review, what is at stake in this matter is nothing less than an effort to supplant Congress’s constitutional power to ‘establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization.’ Such an action stands in stark contravention to federal law and to the constitutional principle of the separation of powers,” the senators’ amicus brief states. “There is little doubt that the Executive adopted the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (“DAPA”) program as part of an explicit effort to circumvent the legislative process.”

The 43 senators who joined the amicus brief are Senators Alexander, Barrasso, Blunt, Boozman, Capito, Cassidy, Coats, Cochran, Corker, Cornyn, Cotton, Crapo, Cruz, Daines, Enzi, Fischer, Graham, Grassley, Hatch, Hoeven, Inhofe, Isakson, Johnson, Lankford, Lee, McCain, McConnell, Moran, Paul, Perdue, Risch, Roberts, Rounds, Rubio, Sasse, Scott, Sessions, Shelby, Sullivan, Thune, Tillis, Vitter and Wicker.

A PDF of the amicus brief is available here.