Pressley: It’s no emergency
Leads Cambridge protest to block Trump’s border plan
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley led hundreds of people protesting President Trump’s national emergency declaration over the southern border in Cambridge Monday, calling the action “a complete overreach” and an “abuse of power.”
The first-term congresswoman challenged the legitimacy of Trump’s Feb. 15 emergency proclamation, in which he categorized the U.S.-Mexico border as a threat to “core national security interests.”
“It’s a complete overreach, over-authority and abuse of power,” the Boston Democrat told the Herald.
Speaking with a megaphone to demonstrators in Harvard Square, the congresswoman incited protesters to lobby Senate Leader Mitch McConnell to oppose the president’s proclamation.
“The Senate, they are not employees of Trump Tower. They are there on behalf of the American people, and they need to act like it,” Pressley said.
Trump made the emergency declaration after signing a compromise bill that provided just $1.4 billion of the total $5.7 billion he requested for a barrier. In a televised news conference Friday morning, Trump declared the southern border’s insecurity against immigration a national emergency, potentially allowing his administration to move billions of dollars from the military and other federal departments to fund the long-promised wall.
In the official declaration, the president wrote: “Because of the gravity of the current emergency situation, it is necessary for the Armed Forces to provide additional support to address the crisis.”
Pressley compared the declaration to Trump’s own past complaints of former President Barack Obama overextending his executive powers.
“This is an abuse of authority, and it is in fact the very thing he accused Barack Obama of, so it’s also great hypocrisy,” Pressley said.
The Cambridge protest was one of many across the state and nation.
“It will be up to us to make sure that Trump doesn’t take over the Constitution,” said demonstrator Charles Grant, 62. “Every place in the country, it’s very important for us to all stand up in what we believe in.”
Demonstrators voiced support for Pressley and other first-term members of Congress who have united against the president’s action.
“That freshman’s got more talent in her little toe than all of Trump,” said Deborah Welton of South Boston.