I’M DECLARING A STATE OF EMERGENCY SO I CAN GET MY WALL
Trump invokes powers normally used in wartime
DONALD Trump yesterday said he would declare a state of emergency to get the funding for his border wall.
The US president is invoking powers normally used in times of war or natural disasters to deliver on his signature campaign pledge.
He said his country was suffering an ‘invasion of drugs, gangs and people’ from Mexico and he had to stop it. Mr Trump is seeking $8billion for the project.
Democrats accused him of manufacturing a crisis, saying the move was a breach of the US constitution because Congress decides how to spend money. Their refusal to grant funds resulted in a record 35-day government shutdown.
Speaking at the White House yesterday Mr Trump said: ‘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.
‘It’s not like it’s complicated. We want to stop drugs from coming into our country, we want to stop criminals and gangs from coming into our country.’
He is planning to take funds from other projects, including $3.6billion from the Army corps of engineers. This could delay the rebuilding of military bases.
Even senators from Mr Trump’s Republican Party were against the move. Susan Collins called the emergency declaration a mistake and Marco Rubio said it was a bad idea. US law does not formally define an emergency.
However, leading Democrats Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, and Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, insisted they could not let the president ‘shred the constitution’.
They said: ‘The president’s unlawful declaration over a crisis that does not exist does great violence to our constitution and makes America less safe, stealing from urgently needed defence funds for the security of our military and our nation. 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. The president’s actions clearly violate the Congress’s exclusive power of the purse, which our founders enshrined in the constitution.
‘The Congress will defend our constitutional authorities in the Congress, in the courts, and in the public, using every remedy available.’
The first formal emergency declaration was issued by President Wilson in 1917 to limit the transfer of American ships to foreigners in the First World War. Around 30 are currently in effect, including the one signed by George W Bush after the September 11, 2001, attacks but no president has ever tried to use the law in the way that Mr Trump is trying to. In the 1970s Congress became concerned that presidents could abuse this power and passed laws which allowed them to override an emergency order. To do so requires a twothirds majority in the Democratcontrolled House and the Senate, where Republicans have the majority.
Mr Trump’s declaration will almost certainly face challenges from civil rights groups and landowners in the path of the wall.
But Mr Trump has faced legal battles before on his Muslim travel ban and there the Supreme Court voted in his favour.