Today, Attorney General Tim Fox joined in a lawsuit to challenge President Barack Obama’s recent executive action on immigration, which will protect hundreds of Montana children from being separated from their undocumented parents.

Shahid Haque, an immigration attorney in Helena, believes that “it is disappointing that the Attorney General is once again wasting taxpayer dollars and his office’s limited resources by pushing his own ideological agenda.  The Attorney General’s office already used up considerable resources in its failed attempt to defend Montana’s anti-immigrant referendum, which was stricken as unconstitutional earlier this year.  Now, he is wasting even more taxpayer dollars by joining in a baseless lawsuit with the apparent goal of tearing Montana families apart.”

While the lawsuit claims that Montana will suffer from allowing undocumented Montanans to come out of the shadows and get work permits, Mr. Haque challenges this assertion. “The reality is that the State of Montana will benefit from keeping Montana families together.  No one wins when U.S. citizen children are separated from their parents, and that is the primary thing that President Obama’s executive action is meant to address.”

The precedent for this type of executive action began with President Reagan and has continued with every President since then.  Over a hundred law professors and scholars of varying political beliefs have all agreed that President Obama’s executive actions are lawful.“

While hundreds of Montanans will benefit from President Obama’s executive action, Montana is one of the states with the least number of foreign born residents, both documented and undocumented.  There is no reason, apart from ideological bias, for Attorney General Tim Fox to be joining in this frivolous lawsuit,” Haque added.