California leads coalition suing to halt Trump border decree.
California and 15 other states filed a lawsuit Monday against President Trump’s emergency declaration to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
State Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the coalition argues the Trump administration’s action violates the Constitution.
“President Trump treats the rule of law with utter contempt,” Becerra said. “He knows there is no border crisis, he knows his emergency declaration is unwarranted, and he admits that he will likely lose this case in court.”
Joining in the lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco are the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Virginia.
Trump declared a national emergency to fulfill his promise of completing the wall. The move allows the president to bypass Congress to use money from the Pentagon and other budgets.
Protesters marched and demonstrated in cities around the country Monday to decry Trump’s declaration. Organized by the liberal group MoveOn and others, the demonstrations took the occasion of Presidents Day to assail Trump’s proclamation as undemocratic and antiimmigrant.
“Trump is the national emergency!” chanted a group of hundreds lined up at the White House fence, where 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.”
Protests also took place throughout the Bay Area, including a gathering in San Francisco at the Federal Building on Seventh Street and a mass rally in Oakland on the shore of Lake Merritt.
At the noontime Oakland rally, about 600 people formed the word “wall” with their bodies while standing alongside a series of blue tarps to spell out the letter “X” in the middle of the word. An additional 100 protesters held up a 50-footlong American flag.
Brad Newsham, the main organizer of the MoveOn event in Oakland, said it was important for him to include the flag in his human artwork display, “because even though this is an oppositional thing about the wall, I really want to reach out to everyone.
“I think this event really captures the mood of the country, even for people who voted for Trump,” Newsham said. “I think most people don’t want this wall. We are Americans, and we have to find some way to move forward together, find some way back to each other. And I hope this event helped.”
There were some counterprotesters, including in Washington, where there was a brief scuffle in the crowd.
Trump’s declaration Friday shifts billions of dollars from military construction to the border. The move came after Congress didn’t approve as much funding as Trump wanted for the wall, which the Republican 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 U.S. asylum system and border facilities.
Critics have argued Trump 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.