Forty-three Republican senators have joined the legal challenge to President Barack Obama's actions on immigration. And while Senator John McCain was among the challengers, fellow Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake declined to sign.

The challengers, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case of United States v. Texas. They are arguing that the president overstepped his constitutional authority in unilaterally expanding programs for immigrants.

A lawsuit from 26 states, led by Texas, challenges the president's actions, with the Supreme Court set to hear arguments later this month and possibly rule in June.

The White House has countered that the president didn't have a choice after comprehensive legislation that passed the Senate in 2013 stalled in the Republican-led House.

President Obama acted in late 2014 to allow people who have been in the United States more than five years and who have children in the country legally to "come out of the shadows and get right with the law."

After losing the Hispanic vote badly in the 2012 election, Republican leaders insisted the party needed to be more inclusive for a diverse electorate if the GOP had any hope of winning the presidency. A bipartisan group of senators, including McCain, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham, crafted a broad overhaul of immigration that boosted border security, increased visas for legal immigrants and a provided a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally.

The legislation didn't get past the House.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.