State Rep. Daire Rendon, of Lake City, today took formal action to oppose the Michigan attorney general’s decision to challenge President Trump’s recent move to build a wall on the southern border of the United States.

Attorney General Dana Nessel joined 15 other states this week in filing a lawsuit questioning the President’s constitutional authority to declare a national emergency.

Rendon’s House Resolution 28 asserts state resources can be better spent building Michigan and continuing the state’s economic comeback.

“This action taken by the attorney general is a political stunt engineered to prevent securing our country’s borders, and Michigan taxpayers are picking up the tab,” Rendon said. “This is a federal issue and we should focus our resources, instead, on issues affecting Michigan families such as fixing our roads, improving the lives of the mentally ill, reducing car insurance rates and expanding broadband access to rural areas across the state.”

Rendon noted the attorney general’s primary role is to advise and enforce the laws of the state of Michigan.

“It seems the attorney general would rather waste time and Michigan taxpayer dollars on political games,” Rendon said.

Trump invoked the National Emergencies Act to allow for the construction of a wall along the United States’ southern border with Mexico, after a months-long battle with lawmakers over funding. Trump’s national emergency will redistribute Department of Defense funds to be used to build a border wall.

“The president’s most important obligation is to enforce the laws of this country that keep American families safe,” Rendon said. “Interfering with and delaying the construction of a border wall is not only a waste of state resources, but complicates our country’s ongoing struggle to stymie the flow of illegal drugs and human trafficking across the southern border. Rather than spending state dollars on political maneuvers, I would rather these funds be put to use to help victims of crime and drug abuse, which affects too many Michigan families.”

The resolution declares the United States southern border with Mexico covers nearly 2,000 miles from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. Many areas remain unprotected, providing numerous points of entry for the nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants and 1.5 million pounds of illegal drugs that cross into the United States each year.

House Resolution 28 will be formally read into the record Tuesday.