Emergency declaration must not stand

Let us join in the chorus of criticism against President Donald Trump’s bogus declaration of an emergency on the southern border. It’s not simply the lack of an actual emergency that is troubling. Trump’s attempt to seize billions to build a wall that Congress has refused to pay for is an abuse of power, an attempt to take authority from Congress and invest it in an increasingly imperial presidency. He too often shows a willingness to set aside the norms of our government, the very checks and balances that protect the United States.

The declaration by Trump, announced Friday in a rambling, 50-minute discourse in the Rose Garden, is just the latest proof that the president fails to value the workings of the U.S. government. There are three equal branches — the executive, legislative and judicial — not one autocrat dictating over all. No wonder Trump loves all-powerful rulers, whether in Russia or North Korea. He wishes he were one. If citizens and Congress from all parties do not battle back, perhaps he will get his wish.

For the first two years of his presidency, Trump and a GOP-led Congress ran the government. They controlled what legislation was heard, voted on and how money was spent. Over those two years, Trump never succeeded in persuading his own party that funding for a border wall was an essential priority. And that’s when he was truly in command.

Now, the president expects the American people to swallow this unlikely scenario. Democrats are in charge of but one sliver of government — the House of Representatives — yet even Republicans in the Senate seem unwilling to fork over all of the money that Trump has demanded for this nonessential wall.

Because Congress is doing its job, allocating dollars where lawmakers believe it necessary, Trump has declared an emergency. “I’m going to be signing a national emergency,” Trump said. “We’re talking about an invasion of our country with drugs, with human traffickers, with all types of criminals and gangs.”

At the heart of the controversy is the campaign promise candidate Trump made. That he would build a wall on the southern border — one, we all remember, for which Mexico would pay. Mexico is not paying for the wall, so Trump decided taxpayers would foot the bill instead. Trump’s fit over what he deemed a lack of funding for this important priority already has resulted in a damaging, 35-day partial shutdown of the federal government.

With another shutdown bearing down on the country, Congress this week passed legislation to keep government afloat and also provide some money for border security. But the $333 billion spending plan had only about a quarter of the money Trump demanded, according to the Washington Post. Thus, the decision to declare a national emergency.

Now, the president believes he can divert billions from other projects — military construction and drug interdiction efforts, for example — to build more of his wall. The funding bill contained $1.375 billion for more barriers in Texas, and Trump is going after another $6.5 billion to $8 billion through his executive action.

Yet there is no actual national emergency. In fiscal year 2017, Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security reported “the lowest level of illegal cross-border migration on record.” Crossings increased in fiscal year 2018 by 30 percent, but apprehensions still remained at the fifth-lowest level on record. Illegal entry apprehensions of individuals from Mexico has plummeted, from 1.67 million in fiscal year 2000, to 310,531 in fiscal year 2017.

There is no “invasion” of the United States, despite Trump’s claims. There is no national emergency.

Pushback has begun, first with criticism from all sides of the liberal-conservative divide. Both Democrats and Republicans understand that by using national emergency powers when there is no true emergency, the president is overreaching. Trump is making his declaration under the 1976 National Emergencies Act, designed for actual crises, not for a president to seek to subvert the will of Congress. The Constitution, after all, gives Congress authority to decide how federal dollars are spent — that authority does not belong to a president who seeks to accomplish by edict what persuasion failed to do.

Lawsuits already have been filed and more will be coming; that’s a given. There are other ways to oppose this declaration as well. The House of Representatives can advance a resolution to end the state of emergency; given that Democrats control the House, it likely would pass and advance to the Senate. That’s when the country will discover whether GOP senators have grown a spine and will oppose Trump on principle. It is hardly conservative to support executive overreach.

This declaration is wrong as a policy approach. We do not need a wall. More importantly, declaring an emergency for a political goal undermines our system of government. For that reason, it’s important to be on record. President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency on the southern border must not stand.