Trump declares emergency
US administration plans to raise some $6.5 billion more to fund barrier along Mexico
US President Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency to fund a border wall along Mexico, in addition to the money allocated for it in a compromise spending bill that he signed into law to avert another government shutdown.
“We’re going to be signing, today, and registering a national emergency and it’s a great thing to do,” Trump said at the White House, adding that the purpose was to stop the “invasion” of drugs and criminals through the border.
He dismissed criticism that the emergency declaration was an unprecedented move, saying he could anticipate opposition and legal challenges. “I didn’t need to do this,” he said, a remark that is expected to be used in the lawsuits.
The 1,169-page spending bill passed by Congress on Thursday allocated $1.375 billion for the wall, much less than the $5.7 bn Trump had sought.
The administration plans to raise about $6.5 bn more through the emergency declaration and other executive action. The target is about $8 billion.
Bulk of the additional money will be “reprogrammed” allocations for military constructions and the Pentagon’s counter-narcotics schemes — $3.6 bn and $2.5 bn respectively—and the rest, about $600 million, from asset forfeitures and seizures by the US treasury, White House officials said.
A national emergency has been declared 58 times in the past to deal with issues including the prevention of uncut diamonds from Sierra Leone. And also to raise funds on two occasions, a senior administration official told reporters. It’s neither unprecedented not does it set a precedence, the official insisted.
“It actually creates zero precedent,” said Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff.
“This is authority given to the president in law already. It’s not as if he didn’t get what he wanted and waved a magic wand to get some money.”
Democrats, already opposed to emergency, plan to challenge it in the Congress and in courts.
“This is plainly a power grab by a disappointed President, who has gone outside the bounds of the law to try to get what he failed to achieve in the constitutional legislative process,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Democratic senator Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement. “The Congress will defend our constitutional authorities in the Congress, in the Courts, and in the public, using every remedy available.”
They urged Republicans to oppose the declaration, hoping perhaps to feed on their reservations about an emergency.
Mitch McConnell, the top Senate Republican, had counselled Trump against it and threatened to pass a legislation to overturn it, but changed his mind later .
Announcing the spending deal and the president’s intention to invoke an emergency, McConnell said on the floor of the Senate on Thursday that “I’ve indicated to him that I am going to support the national emergency declaration.”
JUDGE RULES AGAINST BUTTERFLY SANCTUARY
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to prevent a portion of a proposed border wall that would have run through a sanctuary for butterflies in Texas, splitting it into two.
Funding for this wall was approved in 2018.
The sanctuary has an estimated 200 species of butterflies and bobcats, coyotes, skunk pigs, armadillos and Texas turtles, according to reports.
It is owned by the North American Butterfly Association which had argued it was a private property and should be spared the wall.