AUSTIN—The state’s top law enforcement agency has asked Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for a ruling on the legality of setting up statewide driver’s license checkpoints but 15 lawmakers say such a move would be unauthorized immigration policymaking.

A number of state legislators argue the Department of Public Safety Commission overstepped its authority Aug. 25 by issuing new rules requiring applicants to prove they are legally in the U.S. before they can receive a Texas driver’s license or identification. Two weeks later, lawmakers were further disturbed after learning the commission’s chairman, Allan B. Polunsky, wanted a ruling on the checkpoints.

“A state agency is making immigration policy for the state of Texas, and that is not their job,” State Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio said in a story Tuesday for the Houston Chronicle’s online edition.

Polunsky did not return the newspaper’s calls for comment.

State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio and 14 other Texas lawmakers sent Abbott a letter asking him to ignore the commission’s legal opinion request because the Legislature has not authorized a DPS checkpoint program.

It’s unclear when Abbott will issue his opinion.

Staffed by state troopers or local police, the checkpoints would stop drivers to review their licenses, vehicle registrations and proof of insurance.

Checkpoints have not been allowed in Texas since the state Court of Criminal Appeals ruled in 1994 they must be authorized by a “politically accountable governing body at the state level.” That case involved a sobriety checkpoint in Arlington. In 1979, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that random traffic stops to check driver’s licenses, where officers did not have reasonable suspicion, were unconstitutional.