RESPONSE TO: TRUMP DECLARES NATIONAL EMERGENCY TO HELP FUND SOUTHERN BORDER WALL
Rocky Montana
["Highly unusual" for the majority of feckless and bought-off politicians in DC, perhaps, but Trump is no feckless or compromised politician; Trump is an American patriot who is constantly putting the safety and well-being of the American people before politics. Trump is doing what ALL U.S. presidents SHOULD do.]
The move came a day after Congress approved a spending bill giving Trump just $1.3 billion in border security funding, far short of the $5.7 billion he originally claimed was necessary for a border wall.
In circuitous remarks in the Rose Garden, Trump said he was declaring an emergency because of "an invasion of our country with drugs, with human traffickers, with all types of criminals and gangs."
Illegal border crossings in the most recent fiscal year (ending in September 2018) were actually lower than in either 2016 or 2014 and much lower than at their peak around 2000, as NPR has previously fact-checked. Many of the most recent arrivals are Central American migrants seeking asylum, citing a fear of violence or persecution back home.
[If these Central American migrants are all seeking asylum, why don't they seek asylum in Mexico where they speak the same language and are closer to their country of origin? No, the vast majority are NOT seeking asylum; they are playing the "asylum card" to try and get into this country to enjoy a free ride promised them by Socialist-Democrat politicians, to the detriment of all American citizens, the U.S. economy, and the future of America. There are all kinds of criminals, also, trying to steal their way into, or, back into the U.S. while there is still an open border and lawless immigration laws.]
National Emergency Declaration For Border Wall Could Tap Military Funds
As Trump spoke, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., issued a statement sharply critical of the president's action. The statement said, in part:
"The President's unlawful declaration over a crisis that does not exist does great violence to our Constitution and makes America less safe, stealing from urgently needed defense funds for the security of our military and our nation. ...
[When Schumer says, "our Constitution" I believe he speaks of his dear United Nations Charter, which was signed at a conference in San Francisco in June 1945 and later that year ratified by the U.S. Senate. Schumer and others also speak of the U.S. Constitution when it serves their nefarious purposes of pulling the wool over the American people's eyes. The UN Charter overrides and neutralizes the U.S. Constitution in nearly all aspects. Yes, Schumer and Pelosi, along with almost all Socialist-Democrat politicians are traitors to the United States Constituion and this nation. Compare the UN Charter with the U.S. Constitution and see for yourself.]
"The President's actions clearly violate the Congress's exclusive power of the purse, which our Founders enshrined in the Constitution. The Congress will defend our constitutional authorities in the Congress, in the Courts, and in the public, using every remedy available."
The balance of the funds include:
- $600 million from the Treasury drug forfeiture fund.
- Some $2.5 billion from counter drug activities with the Department of Defense, [code for joint CIA-FBI counter insurgency operations on both sides of the US-Mexico border - watch the film, Sicario.] and some reprogramming from other Pentagon accounts.
- Some $3.6 billion in military construction funds.
No disaster money will be used as part of this plan.
White House officials say the $8 billion should allow Trump to build as much wall as he wanted to — 234 miles of barrier — had Congress authorized the $5.7 billion he asked for. Officials say plans are to construct a see-through steel bollard barrier, not a concrete wall, at locations to be determined by Customs and Border Protection.
Trump's effort to augment a border barrier funding compromise crafted by Congress in order to still get the wall that he has long promised his supporters is also a risky gambit. Legal challenges and pushback even from some within his own party await Trump in the next phase of the ongoing national political battle over border security and immigration policy — cementing the issues at the forefront of his bid for a second term.
Trump said Friday that he expects such legal challenges and predicted they would eventually reach the Supreme Court, where, he said, "We'll win, I think."
"I didn't need to do this," Trump said in response to a reporter's question about the emergency declaration. "I just want to get it done faster, that's all."
[Trump shouldn't have had to do this, however, our Socialist-Democrat politicians in both Houses of Congress have failed the American people--BIG TIME!]
Centrist Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is up for re-election in 2020, called Trump's planned move a "mistake" in a statement Thursday. Collins also argued that the National Emergencies Act was only "intended to apply to major natural disasters or catastrophic events, such as the attacks on our country."
National Emergency Declaration For Border Wall Could Tap Military Funds
"Such a declaration would undermine the role of Congress and the appropriations process; it's just not good policy. It also sets a bad precedent for future Presidents — both Democratic and Republican — who might seek to use this same maneuver to circumvent Congress to advance their policy goals. It is also of dubious constitutionality, and it will almost certainly be challenged in the courts," Collins said.
[Susan Collins (closet Socialist-Democrat) and the rest of the Socialist-Democrat-republican politicians who walk around and talk with blinders on, or, speak to their Socialist-Democrat constituents. Neither have a clue and are on the wrong side of history.]
Republican Sen. John Cornyn represents Texas, which includes the border region that Trump has claimed is being overrun with drugs and undocumented immigrants, necessitating a drastic response. Cornyn expressed reservations about the president's decision.
"My concerns about an emergency declaration were the precedent it would establish," he said. "I also thought it would not be a practical solution because there would be a lawsuit filed immediately and the money would presumably be balled up associated with that litigation. I thought there were other, better alternatives."
[Another feckless "republican" and/or closet Socialist-Democrat politician. So sad.]
But to Trump, declaring a national emergency likely seems to be the only way he can claim victory after weeks of back-and-forth [negotiations in bad faith by the Pelosi and her controlled Democrat lemmings] over funding for border security.
Another shutdown would have been risky, and there wasn't much appetite for going that route again among congressional Republicans.
But there's little support among the public for Trump's approach either. A [FAKE] CNN poll earlier this month showed Americans oppose — by more than 2 to 1 — Trump using a national emergency declaration to build a border wall.
That seems to be one of the messages Democratic leaders will hone in on during what is likely to be a new phase in the standoff over border security.
In the Democrats' Spanish-language response to Trump's State of the Union earlier this month, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said he would sue the administration if Trump declared a national emergency to find funds for a border wall.
"Any crisis on our border is of President Trump's own making: family separations, child detention, turning our backs on asylum seekers, and more. There is no national emergency. If Trump oversteps his authority and abandons negotiations with Congress by declaring a fabricated national emergency, we won't only call his bluff, we will do what we must to hold him accountable," Becerra said. "No one is above the law."
[Such B.S.]
NPR's Scott Horsley and Tamara Keith contributed to this story.
http://www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/government/trump_government_-_trump/news.php?q=1550252614