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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Rick Perry has written to state agencies calling a new Obama administration immigration policy "a slap in the face to the rule of law."

In a letter sent Monday, Perry said the White House's "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" program doesn't change Texas policies.

Last week, young illegal immigrants around the state and nation formed long lines to begin applying for work permits under the policy.

It defers deportations for that group if they meet certain criteria, including arrival in the United States before they turned 16 and no convictions for certain crimes.

Perry wrote that the policy confers "absolutely no legal status whatsoever to any alien."

He said it "does not undermine or change our state laws" and that he expects all agencies to keep enforcing them.

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Mexico's president-elect asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to evaluate the murder case of a Mexican woman who was sentenced to 99 years in prison for the death of a Texas boy.

Enrique Pena Nieto filed a brief in his personal capacity supporting the appeal of Rosa Estela Olvera Jimenez. He argued that Jimenez was denied due process because she wasn't given funds to hire expert witnesses and had ineffective counsel.

Pena Nieto was governor of the state of Mexico when Jimenez, a native of that state, was sentenced in 2005 for the death of a nearly 2-year-old boy she had been babysitting in Austin. The boy died three months after choking on five paper towels lodged in his throat.

Jimenez said the boy ate the paper towels, but prosecutors argued that she stuffed the towels into the boy's mouth.

Pena Nieto, who was elected president in July and takes office in December, was joined in the brief by the current governor of the state of Mexico and a Mexican lawyer.

"Granting Rosa's petition could rescue an innocent woman from languishing in prison for the rest of her life, cut off from her daughter and the son born to her in jail as she awaited trial," the brief said.

It also could also impact other cases. The brief notes that more than two million Mexican nationals live in Texas, and many of them — like Jimenez — are there illegally. Without resources, the brief argues, they are at a disadvantage in the criminal justice system.

Jimenez was five months pregnant in 2003 when she was babysitting the boy and her own young daughter.

"The little boy loved her," said Chris Johns, an Austin attorney representing Pena Nieto in the case. There was no evidence of trauma anywhere on the boy's body, he said.

Jimenez argued at trial that the boy had eaten the paper towels himself and she had a neighbor dial 911 after seeing the boy turn blue. Prosecutors alleged Jimenez held the boy down and shoved paper towels down his throat, according to the brief.

The jury sided with prosecutors and handed down the sentence. Jimenez's children were later taken to live with her mother in Mexico, Johns said.

Jimenez is requesting that the Supreme Court consider her case on her claims of innocence and ineffective counsel. Her trial attorney had asked the judge for funds to hire expert witnesses but didn't do so on the record, jeopardizing her initial state appeal, which was denied.

She later went before a habeas court seeking a new trial. With the financial support of the state of Mexico, she hired expert witnesses, and the judge presiding over four days of testimony from Jimenez's experts recommended she receive a new trial.

In April, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said it agreed with some but not all of that judge's findings and denied Jimenez's request for a new trial.

Ryan Bates, an attorney handling Jimenez's appeal, said that if the habeas judge had such strong doubts, due process requires she get a new trial.

"When an impartial judge can look at the case of a habeas petitioner like Rosa Jimenez and say that it's more likely than not that no rational juror would find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in a retrial, everyone involved knows that there's severe constitutional doubts about the validity of the original trial and its verdict," he said.

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas (AP) — Officials from a U.S. agency that monitors the U.S.-Mexico border are to explain why they're allowing construction of border fence segments in the Rio Grande flood plain.

The explanation will come at a South Texas citizen forum Wednesday evening in Rio Grande City.

Earlier this year, the U.S. side of the International Boundary and Water Commission withdrew its objection to border fence construction in the flood plain, finding it wouldn't obstruct the flow of the Rio Grande significantly.

The decision potentially affects about seven miles of fencing planned in the flood plain. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says there are no immediate plans to build the segments because funding doesn't exist, but Mexico argues the fencing would violate a treaty and deflect floodwaters to its side of the river.

A member of Congress who sits on the House's tax-writing committee responded to the report by calling on IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman to resign, claiming the IRS is helping illegal immigrants defraud the government.

Non-citizens without Social Security numbers have to get ID numbers from the IRS to claim tax refunds. Their applications for ID numbers are processed at an IRS center in Austin, Texas.

J. Russell George, the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration, said investigators looking into the application process found "an environment which discourages employees from detecting fraudulent applications."

Instead, IRS employees were encouraged to process as many ID applications as possible, George said in his report. In addition, investigators learned that the IRS had quit using successful fraud-detection measures in processing the applications.

"There is a potential that erroneous tax refunds are going to non-qualifying individuals, allowing them to defraud the federal government of billions of dollars," investigators wrote in the report.

Once ID numbers are obtained fraudulently, they can be used for other deceptions. When first introduced in 1996, the ID numbers were supposed to be used only for taxes. But investigators found they're now being used in several states to get driver's licenses.

Almost 3 million tax returns seeking $6.8 billion were filed last year using IRS ID numbers rather than Social Security numbers. Investigators said they couldn't put a number on how many of those returns may have been fraudulent.

At issue are the documentation requirements for verifying the identity of those who apply for an ID number. Unlike applications for a passport or a Social Security number, applicants for the ID number weren't required to submit certified copies of their birth certificate or other identification.

IRS managers had been aware of the problem since at least 2002, but failed to take sufficient action, investigators said. Tax examiners at the agency also complained to investigators they had little to no training in how to root out fraudulent applications.

IRS officials responding to the report said they already had taken action to address the problem. In June, the agency started requiring original or certified documents until new rules can be developed for 2013.

"Our leadership moved quickly and aggressively to address issues that were identified," IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge said.

Treasury investigators said the IRS has agreed to adopt seven of their nine recommendations for correcting the problem and is still considering the other two.

In a letter to Shulman calling for his resignation, Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, cited investigators' findings that people sought $4.2 billion in refundable child tax credits last year using IRS ID numbers.

"The commissioner and certain IRS officials are essentially aiding and abetting illegal immigrants and others in fraudulently receiving tax refunds courtesy of the American taxpayer," Johnson said in a statement.

IRS officials declined to comment on Johnson's letter.

Follow Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Nathaly Uribe has all the papers she needs to get a work permit — something the 17-year-old daughter of a construction worker only dreamed of growing up as an illegal immigrant in the United States.

The high school senior said she hopes a federal program beginning Wednesday that defers deportation for illegal immigrants will make it easier to get a decent job and help pay for college.

"This is my country. It's where my roots are," said Uribe, who moved from Chile when she was a toddler and lives in Glen Burnie, Md. "It feels great to know that the country that I call home is finally accepting me."

Thousands of young illegal immigrants lined up Wednesday hoping for the right to work legally in America without being deported. The Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals could expand the rights of more than 1 million young illegal immigrants by giving them work permits, though they would not obtain legal residency here or a path to citizenship.

At least 13,000 people stood in line in Chicago, clutching reams of paperwork, for a workshop led by immigrant rights advocates at the city's Navy Pier. Hundreds of potential applicants waited outside nonprofit offices in Los Angeles for help filing paperwork to open the door to the staples of success in America — a work permit, and then later a Social Security number and driver's license.

"It's something I have been waiting for since I was two years old," said Bupendra Ram, a 25-year-old communications graduate student in Fullerton, Calif., who still needs supporting documents from his Fiji Islands home before he can apply. "This offers us an opportunity to fulfill the dreams I've had since I was a child."

Less than three months before an expected tight presidential election, the new immigration program is mired in controversy. Republican critics accuse President Barack Obama of drafting the plan to boost his political standing with Latinos ahead of November's vote and say the program favors illegal immigrants over unemployed American citizens during dismal economic times.

In Arizona, which passed one of the nation's toughest anti-immigration laws, Gov. Jan Brewer signed an executive order Wednesday directing state agencies to deny driver's licenses and other public benefits to illegal immigrants who obtain work authorizations under the program. Brewer said the federal program doesn't give immigrants legal status and she's following the intent of the current state law denying public benefits to them.

To be eligible for the federal program, immigrants must prove they arrived in the United States before they turned 16, are 30 or younger, have been living in the country at least five years and are in school or graduated or served in the military. They cannot have been convicted of certain crimes or otherwise pose a safety threat.

Initial concerns that federal authorities might take a tough approach on applications or that a Republican presidential victory could unravel applicants' gains have largely been pushed aside by massive interest from thousands of young people eager to work.

In Los Angeles, one immigrant rights' group started hosting hourly information sessions over the last month to keep up with the frenzy. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles has handed out 12,000 information packets about the program and is encouraging all eligible immigrants to apply as long as they have stayed out of legal trouble, said Angelica Salas, the organization's director.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney does not support so-called Dream Act legislation for illegal immigrants who attend college — a key group that Obama aims to reach with this program. The former Massachusetts governor has also criticized the deferred action program but has not said it he would reverse it, pledging instead an unspecified "civil but resolute" long-term fix to illegal immigration.

So far, the measure has won favor for Obama along Latinos — many who view immigration as a litmus test when choosing a political candidate, said Manuel Pastor, director of the University of Southern California's Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration.

"What this has done is to signal that the president, who was unable to get comprehensive immigration reform, does at least care about the situation of these immigrants," Pastor said. "This is something that has been overwhelmingly popular in the immigrant population and in the Latino population in general."

Some Republican lawmakers have accused Obama of sidestepping Congress and creating a backdoor amnesty program.

"It's a betrayal of American young people," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican. "We're supposed to be representing the interests of the American people — not people who come here illegally from other countries."

In an internal document outlining the program's implementation, Department of Homeland Security officials estimated more than 1 million people would apply in the first year and about 890,000 would be eligible.

On Wednesday, immigrants lined up for help filing applications at workshops around the country. Others sought identity documents from consulates to be able to apply.

Jaqueline Cinto said she's still working on gathering the documents she needs, knowing it's her only shot at putting her master's degree in education to good use. But she's nervous that filing the papers might put her relatives at risk for deportation — even though Homeland Security officials have said they will generally not use applicants' information to track down other family.

"I am even more afraid that I might be denied," said Cinto, 26, who came to New York more than a decade ago from Mexico.

In central California, one group has been warning farmworkers and their children not to sign up for the program at all.

"Immigration agents could haul them off that same day," said Manuel Cunha, president of the Nisei Farmers League. "Even if they don't, if this policy is disbanded, now ICE has the addresses of all the families. Why would you want to squeal on your parents?"

The documents to prove identity could include passports, birth certificates, school transcripts, medical, financial and military records. Multiple sworn affidavits, signed under penalty of perjury, can also be used, Homeland Security officials said. Anyone found to have committed fraud will be referred to federal immigration agents, the department said.

Laura Lichter, a Denver attorney who heads the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said everyone takes a risk by applying.

"I would say that people are between a rock and a hard place. In most cases, people can take (the government) at their word that their intent is to administer this policy in a fair and appropriate manner but there are going to be people that are going to find themselves having problems," she said

A decision on each application could take several months, and immigrants have been warned not to leave the country while their application is pending. If they are allowed to stay in the United States and want to travel internationally, they will need to apply for permission to come back into the country, a request that would cost another $360.

The lines on Wednesday grew throughout the day; the crowd in Chicago was so large that workshop organizers told them to come back another day.

"Navy Pier is today's Ellis Island, and while they saw New York City, today they see Chicago," said Illinois congressman Luis Gutierrez. "But the most important thing is they see America."

Contributing to this report were Andres Gonzalez and Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington, Elliot Spagat in San Diego, Gosia Wozniacka in Fresno, Calif., Sitthixay Ditthavong and Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Paul Davenport in Phoenix.