Trump stays his hand on border
President backs off talk of national emergency as stalemate with House continues
WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump on Friday threw cold water on the idea of immediately declaring a national emergency to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, reversing days of signals that he might soon declare the emergency amid a protracted standoff with Democrats over a partial shutdown of the federal government.
“What we’re not looking to do right now is national emergency,” he said Friday afternoon, surrounded by law enforcement officials at a White House roundtable. “I’m not going to do it so fast.”
The president has defiantly said for days he might declare a national emergency to expedite construction of the wall — and his administration has asked agencies to begin preparations.
But he has gotten sharp pushback, even from Republicans, at the notion of declaring such an emergency. His lawyers have privately warned that he could be on shaky footing with such a move, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The House broke for the weekend Friday, all but ensuring that the partial government shutdown would become the longest in U.S. history.
On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi presented possible alternatives to a physical wall.
Among the president’s justifications for a wall is to stop drugs from coming into the United States, so Pelosi proposed spending “hundreds
of millions of dollars” for technology to scan cars for drugs, weapons and contraband at the border.
“The positive, shall we say, almost technological wall that can be built is what we should be doing,” Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said during her weekly news conference.
That didn’t go over well with Fight for the Future, a digital rights advocacy group that on Friday started a petition asking Democrats to drop plans for a “technological wall” that it says could threaten Fourth Amendment rights that guard against unreasonable searches and seizures.
“Current border surveillance programs subject people to invasive and unconstitutional searches of their cell phones and laptops, location tracking, drone surveillance, and problematic watchlists,” the group’s petition says. “The Congressional Democrat plan to build a ‘technological wall’ at the border is just as unacceptable as Trump’s plan to build one is.”
In December, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General released a report that showed searches of electronic devices at the border were up nearly 50 percent in 2017. The report also found that border agents were not always following standard operating procedures for searches, including failing to properly document such searches. In addition, information copied by agents were not always deleted as required. U.S. and Customs Border Protection concurred with the OIG’s findings, according to the report.
On Friday, the House held its final votes of the week, including on a measure to ensure that federal workers who are furloughed receive back pay once the government reopens. The bill, which passed the Senate on Thursday, now goes to Trump for his signature.
The House also passed another bill that would reopen more shuttered government departments — but it was already declared dead on arrival in the GOP-controlled Senate because of a veto threat from Trump.
About 800,000 workers missed a paycheck Friday as the impasse between Trump and Democrats stretched into its 21st day. Without a dramatic turn of events, the shutdown would become one for the record books at midnight.
As of early Friday afternoon, there were no signs of serious negotiations underway, and leaders of both chambers announced no plans to meet before Monday.
Meanwhile, speculation continued to swirl around whether Trump would declare a national emergency and direct the military to build the wall without congressional consent.
Rep. Mark Meadows, RN.C., who talks frequently with Trump, said that he expected the president to take that step in a matter of “days, not weeks” but that it was unclear whether doing so would lead to a full reopening of government.
Trump took to Twitter to tout his high-profile trip to the border Thursday, writing, “I just got back and it is a far worse situation than almost anyone would understand, an invasion!”
“The Democrats, Cryin’ Chuck and Nancy don’t know how bad and dangerous it is for our ENTIRE COUNTRY,” Trump wrote, referencing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi said Friday that Democrats have not felt any political pressure to give in to Trump’s wall demands.
“No, except to stay firm,” she said.
She dismissed Trump’s negotiating style as one destined to fail. “His version of a negotiation is, ‘Do everything I want,’ ” she said.
Other Democrats pushed back in television appearances and speeches on the floor.
“One person is responsible for shutting down government: Donald Trump,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told his colleagues. He argued that Democrats are open to tightening border security but are not going to “waste money” on what he characterized as an antiquated approach advocated by Trump.
House Republicans accused Democrats of going through the motions Friday by passing the latest of four bills to reopen parts of the government unrelated to border security. The bill taken up Friday would reopen the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Park Service and several other agencies.
The bill passed 240-179, with 10 Republicans joining all Democrats in the chamber supporting it.
Amid the stalemate, the White House has been laying the groundwork for a declaration of a national emergency to build Trump’s border wall.
The administration is eyeing unused money in the Army Corps of Engineers budget, specifically a disaster-spending bill passed by Congress last year that includes $13.9 billion allocated but not spent for civil works projects, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
The list includes dozens of flood-control projects in areas affected by recent natural disasters, including the Texas coastline inundated by Hurricane Harvey and parts of Puerto Rico battered by Hurricane Maria. The military construction budget is also being looked at as a potential source for unspent funds, with billions more potentially available there.