Texas on Wednesday led 17 states opposed to U.S. President Barack Obama's immigration measures aimed to stop the deportation of about 5 million illegal migrants and provide employment opportunities to these foreigners.

Greg Abbott, the current attorney general and incoming governor of Texas, insisted that the country's problematic immigration system must be handled by Congress and not by the president. He stressed that the immigration action taken by Obama goes against the constitution.

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The president was "abdicating his responsibility to faithfully enforce the laws that were duly enacted by Congress and attempting to rewrite immigration laws, which he has no authority to do," the New York Times quoted Abbott as saying.

By refusing to wait for Congress to fix the country's broken immigration system, Obama would encourage more illegal border crossing at the southwest, which would mean Texas and other states located within that zone would need to spend more on law enforcement, health care and education as additional foreign migrants cross the border because of a hope that they, too, would be included in future amnesty programs, Abbott said.

However, the White House belied that the president lacked legal authority as it cited deferred deportations that Obama had allowed under his executive prosecutorial discretion.

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Shawn Turner said they are confident that Obama is acting within the scope of his authority. The Supreme Court also clarified that federal officials have the right to prioritize certain actions to implement immigration policies, Turner added.

Most of the states that joined the lawsuit are southern and Midwestern states such as Alabama, Georgia, Idaho and Indiana. It is the 31^st time that Abbott filed a lawsuit against the federal government since Obama became president in 2009.

Abbott and outgoing Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Obama's action will "promote a culture of lawlessness." Perry compared the Obama immigration initiative to placing a neon sign on the country's boundaries and telling migrants they could ignore the laws here, said Perry, who sent 1,000 National Guards to the state's border.

TagsTexas, immigration, Obama immigration initiative, Immigration Reform, illegal migrants, Obama lawsuit