Trump emergency mocked
Sixteen states file lawsuit against president’s crisis declaration to fund wall with Mexico
Protesters around the US spent President’s Day rallying against President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration as at least a dozen states planned a lawsuit to block Trump’s latest ploy to fund his long-promised border wall.
“Trump is the national emergency!” chanted a group of hundreds lined up yesterday at the White House fence while Trump was out of town in Florida. Some held up large letters spelling out “stop power grab”.
In downtown Fort Worth, Texas, a small group carried signs with messages including “no wall! #FakeTrumpEmergency.”
California and 15 other states, including Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, filed a lawsuit yesterday against President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration to fund a wall on the US-Mexico border.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the suit alleged the Trump administration’s action violated the Constitution.
Governor Jared Polis and Attorney General Phil Weiser, both Democrats, said in a statement that the wall project could divert tens of millions of dollars from military construction projects in Colorado.
Maxine Waters (Democrat, Los Angeles) decried the President’s actions at a peaceful rally attended by a few hundred people outside Los Angeles City Hall. Police kept the crowd separate from a handful of pro-Trump counter-protesters who waved flags and wore red “Make America Great Again” hats.
A large crowd gathered outside the Federal Building in San Francisco. One demonstrator carried a sign that read: “Step 1: Declare a national emergency. Step 2: Play golf. Step 3: Watch SNL.”
A crowd of more than 100 protesters gathered in frigid weather at the state Capitol in Denver roared with approval when Weiser told them his office was joining the multistate lawsuit, Denverite reported.
“There is zero real-world basis for the emergency declaration, and there will be no wall,” New Mexico Governor Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, said.
Organised by the liberal group MoveOn and others, the demonstrations took the occasion of the President’s Day holiday to assail Trump’s proclamation as undemocratic and anti-immigrant.
Kelly Quirk, of the progressive group Soma Action, told a gathering of dozens in Newark, New Jersey, that “democracy demands” saying “no more” to Trump.
“There are plenty of real emergencies to invest our tax dollars in,” said Quirk.
In New York City, hundreds of people at a Manhattan park chanted “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here” as several of them held up letters spelling out, “IMPEACH.”
There were some counterprotesters, including in Washington, where there was a brief scuffle in the crowd.
Trump’s declaration at the weekend shifts billions of dollars from military construction to the border. The move came after Congress didn’t approve as much as Trump wanted for the wall, which he considers a national security necessity.
His emergency proclamation calls the border “a major entry point for criminals, gang members, and illicit narcotics”. Illegal border crossings have declined from a high of 1.6 million in 2000. But 50,000 families are now entering illegally each month, straining the US asylum system and border facilities.
Trump’s critics have argued he undercut his own rationale for the emergency declaration by saying he “didn’t need to do this” but wanted to get the wall built faster than he otherwise could.