Joaquin Castro leads challenge to Trump’s border wall.
For the third time in the past year, San Antonio Rep. Joaquin Castro is leading the charge to terminate President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration being used to justify spending on a border wall.
About a year ago, the same resolution authored by Castro passed in both the Democraticcontrolled House and Republican-led Senate. But Trump vetoed the legislation in March 2019. The House did not have the votes to overturn the veto.
By law, Congress can vote every six months on a national emergency. Castro tried again in September, and again, both chambers tried to end the national emergency. Trump vetoed the measure in October.
“President Trump’s latest power grab is the result of losing a political fight with Congress,” Castro said in a statement Friday. “A Democratic House and Republican Senate have voted to terminate the president’s sham emergency declaration and prevent him from diverting billions in military funds reserved for actual national security priorities. Raiding these funds to build a wall does nothing to make us safe nor does it address the real humanitarian crisis across our southern border.”
Trump has brushed off criticism over his use of an emergency declaration, saying he wasn’t the first president to do so. Other presidents have used the authority, but not to free up funding for projects that weren’t supported by Congress.
The Defense Department announced Thursday that it will divert $3.8 billion to build 177 more miles of the wall.
All together, Trump has obtained just over $3 billion for border barrier construction by working through Congress, subject to limitations imposed by lawmakers.
He has used various transfer and emergency authorities to shift almost $7 billion more from the emergency declaration, a forfeiture fund containing money seized by law enforcement, and funding for military counterdrug activities.
Castro claims that Trump’s actions will hurt military families and violate the law and the rights of Texas landowners.
Today marks one year since Trump first issued the declaration that will allow him to expedite the construction of the border wall — a centerpiece of his 2016 campaign that he has continued to tout as he seeks re-election — without congressional approval.
Under the law, the president can divert funds to a federal construction project during a national emergency.
Trump put out the emergency declaration after Congress approved just a portion of what he had requested, eliciting harsh condemnation from Democrats and discomfort over constitutional separation of powers from some Republicans. The stalled negotiations over border funding brought on the longest government shutdown in history.