Wall fight starts fast
Legal, political challenges begin immediately after president’s declaration
A day after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency — in an attempt to circumvent Congress and redirect taxpayer money to fund 230 miles of barriers along the U.s.-mexico border — the designation has been beset with political and legal challenges.
Democrats painted Trump’s declaration as evidence of a rogue president who has finally gone too far, and they vowed to stop him. While some Republicans said they supported Trump, others expressed disapproval, fearing the move would set an undesired precedent or deprive other projects of necessary funds.
Even in his declaration, Trump said he expected to be sued and anticipated the Supreme Court would ultimately decide the case. Still, in a freewheeling news conference Friday, he attempted to justify the executive action in
hopes of fulfilling a campaign promise that has eluded him for two years. Hours later, Trump flew to Mar-a-lago, his South Florida estate, and was spotted at his West Palm Beach golf club Saturday.
By Saturday, the declaration had triggered at least one protest in New York, with various groups promising to hold more across the country on Presidents Day.
Trump’s announcement capped a frenetic twomonth period that included the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history, at 35 days; the reemergence of Democrats as a political force; and a Republican Party caught between taking signals from Trump and bucking his unconventional impulses. It also begins a new phase of his presidency that will test the separation of powers, as he sidesteps Congress despite the GOP urging restraint.
During his 50-minute, meandering news conference in the Rose Garden, Trump offered little empirical evidence to back up his assertion that there is a crisis on the border that requires an extraordinary response. Instead, he invoked hyperbolic, campaign-style rhetoric about lawlessness that he said only walls could suitably address.
“We’re talking about an invasion of our country with drugs, with human traffickers, with all types of criminals and gangs,” he said. He used the word “invasion” seven times.
The president 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 could do the wall over a longer period of time,” Trump said. “I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster.”
The legal challenges came almost immediately.
On Friday, the advocacy group Public Citizen filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, seeking to block Trump’s declaration on behalf of three Texas landowners and an environmental group.
“We just sued Trump over his fake national emergency,” the group stated. “If Trump gets away with this, there’s no telling what the next concocted ‘emergency’ will be, who will be targeted and what emergency powers will be claimed.”
Another advocacy group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, sued the Department of Justice on Friday for failing to provide documents — including legal opinions and communications — related to the president’s decision to declare a national emergency.
“Americans deserve to know the true basis for President Trump’s unprecedented decision to enact emergency powers to pay for a border wall,” the group’s executive director, Noah Bookbinder, said in a statement. “The Justice Department’s inadequate response raises major questions about whether even the president’s own administration believes there is a legal basis for him to bypass the constitutional authority granted to Congress to appropriate funds.”
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, said he planned to work with other states to take legal action against the White House. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said Friday that he, too, is considering legal action.
The American Civil Liberties Union said it was preparing a lawsuit for early this week, arguing that Trump cannot legally redirect taxpayer money during an “emergency” unless it’s for military construction projects that support the armed forces.
Trump also faces political pushback, including from members of his party.
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’s actions clearly violate the Congress’ exclusive power of the purse, which our Founders enshrined in the Constitution,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, DCalif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement. “The Congress will defend our constitutional authorities in the Congress, in the Courts, and in the public, using every remedy available.”
Most notably, Pelosi and Schumer said, “We call upon our Republican colleagues to join us to defend the Constitution.”
Pelosi’s office is in the process of amassing a list of nearly 400 projects nationwide that could be jeopardized by the diversion of funds to construct a border wall, the Hill reported.
Republicans are divided over Trump’s declaration, with many unnerved by 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 a reelection race next year, suggested it would be hypocritical for Republicans to support the emergency declaration after criticizing President Barack Obama for “executive overreach.” He warned that 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 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.