INDIANAPOLIS (AP): Indiana Gov. Mike Pence says President Barack Obama's executive order changing U.S. immigration law amounts to “an unacceptable end run around the democratic process.”

Pence on Wednesday instructed Attorney General Greg Zoeller to join a 17-state coalition suing to have Obama's Nov. 20 order ruled unconstitutional.

The order extends protection from deportation and the right to work to an estimated 4.1 million parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents who have lived in the U.S. for at least five years and to hundreds of thousands more young people.

Many top Republicans have denounced the move.

Pence says the federal lawsuit filed Wednesday by Texas Gov.-elect Greg Abbott “seeks to have the federal courts restore the rule of law and proper balance to our constitutional system of government.”