The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SHUTDOWN AVERTED; EMERGENCY DECLARED
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday declared the southern border of the United States to be a national emergency, a move that opens new legal and political battles as he seeks to fulfill a campaign promise.
As part of the declaration, Trump signed a $333 billion spending bill that funds many government operations through September. This averted a government shutdown that would have begun today.
The president made the designation in an attempt to redirect taxpayer money from other accounts and use it to erect more than 230 miles of barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border.
But Trump anticipates a flurry of legal challenges that will eventually be decided by the Supreme Court. Democrats are trying to paint the action as evidence of a rogue president who has finally gone too far and vowed to stop him.
Trump’s anno u nc e ment capped a two-month dispute over funding for a border wall that included the longest government shutdown in U.S. history at 35 days. It also begins a new phase of his presidency that will test the separation of powers, as he tries to sidestep Congress despite some Republicans urging restraint.
‘We’re going to confront the national security crisis on our southern border, and we’re going to do it one way or the other.’
President Donald Trump ‘The president is not above the law. The Congress cannot let the president shred the Constitution.’
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi & Sen. Chuck Schumer
During a Rose Garden news conference, Trump invoked campaign-style rhetoric about lawlessness at the border that he said only walls could suitably address.
“We’re going to confront the national security crisis on our southern border, and we’re going to do it one way or the other,” he said. “It’s an invasion,” he added. “We have an invasion of drugs and criminals coming into our country.”
He later said the emergency declaration wasn’t urgent but, rather, expedient, as it would help him build a wall more quickly than Congress would allow.
“I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster,” he said.
Democrats and the American Civil Liberties Union mapped out the ways they would try to block Trump’s wall. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said he would summon White House counsel Pat Cipollone to Capitol Hill to explain the White House’s rationale.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, said he planned to work with other states to take legal action against the White House. The ACLU said it was preparing a lawsuit of its own, arguing Trump cannot legally redirect taxpayer money during an “emergency” unless it’s for military construction projects that support the armed forces.
Democrats and several Republicans predicted a two-pronged response to the declaration: one, having Congress vote to reject it in the coming weeks, and two, suing Trump — or at least aiding other parties that attempt to intervene.
“The president is not above the law. The Congress cannot let the president shred the Constitution,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., 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.”
Pelosi and Schumer said, “We call upon our Republican colleagues to join us to defend the Constitution.”
Republicans are divided over Trump’s declaration, with many unnerved over what they see as an executive power grab while others are unwilling to challenge the president ahead of 2020 presidential and congressional elections.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who faces re-election next year, suggested it would be hypocritical for Republicans to support an emergency declaration after criticizing former President Barack Obama for “executive overreach” and suggested future Democratic presidents might follow Trump’s precedent.
Tillis described a future “President Bernie Sanders declaring a national emergency to implement the radical Green New Deal” or a “President Elizabeth Warren declaring a national emergency to shut down banks and take over the nation’s financial institutions.”
“I don’t believe in situational principles,” he said.
Other Republicans lodged an even more straightforward objection: Declaring a national emergency might prompt Trump to shift funds from other desperately needed projects.
Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, warned against tapping Defense Department and military construction accounts to build the wall.
“Doing so would have detrimental consequences for our troops,” he said in a Thursday statement. “And it would undercut one of the most significant accomplishments of the last two years — beginning to repair and rebuild our military. I hope that the president will pursue other options.”