Trump declares U.S.-Mexico emergency for border wall

[rooster59]

Trump declares U.S.-Mexico emergency for border wall

By Roberta Rampton and Steve Holland

 

U.S. President Donald Trump declares a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border as he speaks about border security in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S., February 15, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency in a bid to fund his promised wall at the U.S.-Mexico border without congressional approval, an action Democrats vowed to challenge as a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

 

The Republican president's move to circumvent Congress represented an escalation in his efforts to make good on a 2016 presidential campaign pledge to build a wall to halt the flow into the country of illegal immigrants, whom Trump says bring crime and drugs.

 

He also signed a bipartisan government spending bill on Friday that would prevent another partial government shutdown by funding several agencies that otherwise would have closed on Saturday.

 

The funding bill represents a legislative defeat for him since it contains no money for his proposed wall - the focus of weeks of conflict between him and Democrats in Congress.

 

Trump made no mention of the bill in rambling comments to the media in the White House's Rose Garden.

 

He had demanded that Congress provide him with $5.7 billion in wall funding as part of legislation to fund the agencies.

That triggered a historic, 35-day December-January government shutdown that hurt the U.S. economy and his opinion poll numbers.

 

By reorienting his quest for wall funding toward a legally uncertain strategy based on declaring a national emergency, Trump risks plunging into a lengthy legislative and legal battle with Democrats and dividing his fellow Republicans, many of whom expressed grave reservations on Friday about the president's action.

 

Fifteen Democrats in the Republican-controlled Senate introduced legislation on Thursday to prevent Trump from invoking emergency powers to transfer funds to his wall from accounts Congress has already committed to other projects.

 

'EXCLUSIVE POWER'

 

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer swiftly responded to Trump's declaration.

 

"The president's actions clearly violate the Congress’s exclusive power of the purse, which our Founders enshrined in the Constitution," they said in a statement. "The Congress will defend our constitutional authorities in the Congress, in the courts, and in the public, using every remedy available.”

 

New York state's attorney general, Letitia James, said her office would also challenge Trump in court. California's governor, Gavin Newsom, also pledged to file suit.

 

"We won't stand for this abuse of power & will fight back with every legal tool at our disposal," James wrote on Twitter.

The president acknowledged that his order would face a lengthy court fight.

 

"I expect to be sued. I shouldn't be sued ... We'll win in the Supreme Court," Trump predicted.

 

Trump may have also undermined his administration's argument about the urgency of the situation, when he told reporters, "I didn't need to do this. But I'd rather do it much faster."

 

Both the House and the Senate could pass a resolution terminating the emergency by majority vote. However, that measure would then go to Trump, who would likely veto it. Overriding the veto would require a two-thirds vote in both chambers.

 

Trump says a wall is needed to curb illegal immigrants and illicit drugs coming across the border. But statistics show that illegal immigration via the border is at a 20-year low and that many drug shipments come through legal ports of entry.

 

Confronted with those statistics at the Rose Garden event with reporters, Trump said they were "wrong."

 

Also present were a half-dozen women holding poster-sized pictures of family members killed by illegal immigrants.

Trump cited their presence in announcing the emergency declaration.

 

Trump estimated his emergency declaration could free up as much as $8 billion to pay for part of the wall. Estimates of its total cost run as high as $23 billion.

 

As a candidate, Trump repeatedly promised Mexico would pay for the wall. It was one of his biggest applause lines at his campaign rallies. Mexico firmly refused to pay, and now Trump wants U.S. taxpayers to cover the costs.

 

REPUBLICANS CONCERNED

 

Some congressional Republicans expressed dismay following the president's announcement.

 

Greg Walden, a senior House Republican, said on Twitter he was "deeply concerned about the precedent that this action sets."

 

Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina said in a statement that Trump' declaration was not a solution.

 

"It wouldn't provide enough funding to adequately secure our borders, it would likely get tied up in litigation, and most concerning is that it would create a new precedent that a left-wing president would undoubtedly utilize to implement their radical policy agenda while bypassing the authority of Congress," Tillis said.

 

Other Republicans, such as Senator Lindsey Graham, were supportive.

 

With an emergency formally declared, Trump was expected to fly later on Friday to his Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Florida for a holiday break.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-02-16

 

 

[canuckamuck]

Amazing what a president has to go through to implement a piece of infrastructure for the good of all Americans. 

At least he does what he promised to do.

[Samui Bodoh]

"...Some congressional Republicans expressed dismay following the president's announcement..."

 

'Dismay'? Are you kidding me? The Republicans wailed, moaned and cried about Obama being an 'Executive President', yet this is way, way, way more of a power grab; this is usurping Congress' power of the purse for no good reason. Repeat, for no good reason; there is no emergency.

 

I am disgusted with Trump, but I have to say that I am even more disgusted with the Republican party; Trump is an idiot, but there are many in the Republican party who aren't idiots, yet enable the Moron to trample over US Constitutional and Democratic norms like they were meaningless. The BS "Emergency Powers" debate will demonstrate once and for all if the Republican party has any principles or is simply a collection of spineless jellyfish addicted to corporate money and pay-offs. It is a shocking thing to say, but for the last two years the US Republican party members of Congress have shared huge similarities with the current Thai NLA membership.

 

i sincerely hope, for the sake of the US, that the Republicans find their backbone.

 

PS In my attempt to always try to find a 'silver lining' in everything, I will say this; if this BS emergency goes through, then the US Republican party won't be able to complain when the next Democrat President declares a Gun Emergency and confiscates all guns, then declares a Climate Change Emergency and shuts down polluting factories, and declares a Woman's Health Emergency and makes abortion legal everywhere, For a start. 

 

Be careful what you wish for, Republicans/Trump supporters.

 

 

[bannork]

22 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

Amazing what a president has to go through to implement a piece of infrastructure for the good of all Americans. 

At least he does what he promised to do.

i thought he promised the Mexicans would pay for it, not US taxpayers.

 

[simple1]

27 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

Amazing what a president has to go through to implement a piece of infrastructure for the good of all Americans. 

At least he does what he promised to do.

Trump has only received authorised funding for approx 20 miles of new barriers and is trying to undemocratically obtain US$8 billion for another 220 miles from the Defence budget. Leaves a shortfall of roughly US$15 billion to fulfill his election con and lies. trump is increasingly trending to a corrupt autocrat, he is a disaster as a President representing a democracy.

[Thailand]

When you are in a hole stop digging?

[helpisgood]

58 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

Trump may have also undermined his administration's argument about the urgency of the situation, when he told reporters, "I didn't need to do this. But I'd rather do it much faster."

 

Insert foot in mouth, Mr. President.

 

Trump is every lawyer's nightmare client.  There's much importance about keeping your mouth shut or, at least, paying close attention to what you are saying and limiting what you say.  I get the feeling that this guy, having been for a long time a con artist real estate man, casino owner, and whatever else, is so used to rambling on and on with his BS and getting away with it because there used to be little or no media fact-checking him.  He just cannot help himself.

 

How about that interview Trump gave to NBC's Lester Holt in which he said the following regarding his decision to fire FBI Director Comey:

 

Trump:  "And in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself -- I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. It's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should've won."

 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/05/11/president_trumps_full_interview_with_lester_holt.html

 

Foot in mouth again!  Didn't the president have anyone around who could explain obstruction of justice to him?  Did he even care to find out?
 

[TopDeadSenter]

Finally. I have long been waiting for this announcement. This is now the most important issue for Trump. His base needs the wall, and the haters also need it for their and their future children's safety, security and preservation of the American state - even if they don't understand that. To put the 8 billion requested into perspective just consider how much the US government hands out yearly in "aid" freebies across the world to countries that hate us. Never has a POTUS achieved so much in any time frame. That 45 has crammed achievement after achievement in just 2 years is nothing short of miraculous. Go the wall!

[keemapoot]

The only national emergency here is that the real President of the United states is a right wing nut political TV news entertainer - Sean Hannity.

 

How could something like this happen?

 

https://www.thewrap.com/chris-cuomo-calls-sean-hannity-without-question-the-most-powerful-person-in-the-media/

[Cryingdick]

57 minutes ago, Samui Bodoh said:

"...Some congressional Republicans expressed dismay following the president's announcement..."

 

'Dismay'? Are you kidding me? The Republicans wailed, moaned and cried about Obama being an 'Executive President', yet this is way, way, way more of a power grab; this is usurping Congress' power of the purse for no good reason. Repeat, for no good reason; there is no emergency.

 

I am disgusted with Trump, but I have to say that I am even more disgusted with the Republican party; Trump is an idiot, but there are many in the Republican party who aren't idiots, yet enable the Moron to trample over US Constitutional and Democratic norms like they were meaningless. The BS "Emergency Powers" debate will demonstrate once and for all if the Republican party has any principles or is simply a collection of spineless jellyfish addicted to corporate money and pay-offs. It is a shocking thing to say, but for the last two years the US Republican party members of Congress have shared huge similarities with the current Thai NLA membership.

 

i sincerely hope, for the sake of the US, that the Republicans find their backbone.

 

PS In my attempt to always try to find a 'silver lining' in everything, I will say this; if this BS emergency goes through, then the US Republican party won't be able to complain when the next Democrat President declares a Gun Emergency and confiscates all guns, then declares a Climate Change Emergency and shuts down polluting factories, and declares a Woman's Health Emergency and makes abortion legal everywhere, For a start. 

 

Be careful what you wish for, Republicans/Trump supporters.

 

 

 

Trying to take people’s guns would end in a blood bath. Come disarm the state of West Virginia if you doubt me. It was Obama that actually made it a simple 60 vote majority in the Senate to confirm judges if I remember correctly. Now the court is stacked the dems had the chickens come home to roost.

 

Let this go to the Supreme Court, I think their are some recently appointed judges that might see this in a more favorable light. From what I heard the 9th will give it a glance and then it will be expedited to the Supreme Court basically bypassing them.

 

 

 

the dems started this game and McConnel was smart enough not to go nuclear so if the republicans are ever in the minority they won’t lose the ability to filibuster.

 

There is no way the green deal would be passed if the dems had both chambers and the whitehouse anyway. 

[bendejo]

Headline of the day

 

Former GOP House Intel chair: McConnell eating 'manure sandwich' with Trump's national emergency

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/430169-former-gop-house-intel-chair-mcconnell-eating-manure-sandwich-on-trump-calling

 

(The Hill tilts conservative)

 

[attrayant]

What kind of "national emergency" takes over two years to declare?

[keemapoot]

2 minutes ago, attrayant said:

What kind of "national emergency" takes over two years to declare?

The same kind where the President says it's actually not an emergency, as he just stated. Flaunting Presidential power. And, he might get away with it.

[Chomper Higgot]

44 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Finally. I have long been waiting for this announcement. This is now the most important issue for Trump. His base needs the wall, and the haters also need it for their and their future children's safety, security and preservation of the American state - even if they don't understand that. To put the 8 billion requested into perspective just consider how much the US government hands out yearly in "aid" freebies across the world to countries that hate us. Never has a POTUS achieved so much in any time frame. That 45 has crammed achievement after achievement in just 2 years is nothing short of miraculous. Go the wall!

Oh bless.

 

You really believe you’re getting your wall.

 

I hate to break it to you.

 

You’re not.

[attrayant]

Whatever he gets away with, nothing significant will happen for a few years since materials procurement and the supporting infrastructure (durable roads along the border) will need to be built first.  By the time Trump is out of office in 2020, hopefully a sane president will put a stop to all of this.

 

We don't even have a viable prototype or design yet - the ones that have been offered have been laughably vulnerable.

 

[mtls2005]

Ann Coulter Fires Back at Trump: ‘The Only National Emergency Is That Our President Is an Idiot’

 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ann-coulter-fires-back-at-trump-the-only-national-emergency-is-that-our-president-is-an-idiot

 

 

Trump supporters should probably not watch the entirety of his "National Emergency" speech. If you do, have a loved one nearby with a fire extinguisher to put out the fire when your head explodes.

 

Even Pence is thinking about the 25th after this "gem".

 

 

[keemapoot]

Just now, attrayant said:

Whatever he gets away with, nothing significant will happen for a few years since materials procurement and the supporting infrastructure (durable roads along the border) will need to be built first. 

Yeah, the tragedy of this is that it will turn into a huge fractionally-finished $8 billion+ albatross. Everybody knows the public (and private landowner) legal and Congressional fights that will ensue. Meanwhile, Mr. vanity will rush to grab money in every way to finish "show" portions where he will hold pep rallies with his brain dead base.

 

The whole thing will be a stain of unfinished mess that will make the Ghost structures of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis look like a child's playground in comparison.

[Chomper Higgot]

Trump declares a national emergency to bypass Congress, an act in direct contradiction with the Constitutional separation  of powers, checks and balances.

 

Illiberals rejoice at the actions of a President assuming the powers of a dictator.

 

In truth, this abuse of power has exposed Trump to the end of his Presidency.

 

Congress will enact their rights under the National Emergencies Act and vote to block the President which will place a duty under the act for the Senate to vote on the House’s resolution within a period not exceeding 18 days.

 

Republican Senators are about to have their nuts placed between the jaws of a vice.

 

Enjoy!

[mtls2005]

22 minutes ago, attrayant said:

We don't even have a viable prototype or design yet - the ones that have been offered have been laughably vulnerable.

 

He knows "wheels", he knows "walls". 

 

Clearly "ladders" are a foreign concept to him?

 

 

[bristolboy]

And as usual, Trump sabotages himself by undercutting, in his own words, the reality of the "emergency". He actually said the following during the very speech in which he announced that he was declaring an emergency.

"I could do the wall over a longer period of time, I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it faster. I want to get it done faster, that’s all.”

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook-pm/2019/02/15/trump-on-emergency-i-didnt-need-to-do-this-394933

[mtls2005]

1 hour ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Finally. I have long been waiting for this announcement.

 

What, two years?

[bristolboy]

48 minutes ago, Cryingdick said:

 

 It was Obama that actually made it a simple 60 vote majority in the Senate to confirm judges if I remember correctly. Now the court is stacked the dems had the chickens come home to roost.

 

 

When you cited this "factoid" elsewhere, I assumed that you had just made a typo and meant "50". I see now that this is not the case. There are not 119 Senators in the US Senate. The correct number is 100.

What's more, Obama may have been the President of the United States, but he was not the Supreme ruler of the Senate. So it would not have been possible for him to change the Senate rules. A little thing called the Constitution prevents that.

And finally, the rules were changed in 2017, when the majority of Senators were Republicans.

So many errors packed into such a small space. You have a gift.

[Lungstib]

The national emergency is not the immigrants who could harm the country but the president who is destroying the foundations the country is built on.

[bushdoctor]

The article says Trump made no mention of the spending bill in his speech, but I watched it...and he did. The article also says signing the spending bill was a defeat for Trump. Trump feels it was a win, since the democrats had stated they would not give $1 early on. 

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I personaly dislike bias news stories. I’m of the side of neutral reporting of news from the news media, and letting people decide for themselves what they think, rather than trying to sway their opinions. 

[bristolboy]

2 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

Amazing what a president has to go through to implement a piece of infrastructure for the good of all Americans. 

At least he does what he promised to do.

Even if the majority of Americans disagree? Apart from opinion polls, including even the latest Fox News poll, the actual election showed that the majority of Americans don't buy the claim of there being an emergency at the border.

[attrayant]

9 minutes ago, bushdoctor said:

Trump feels it was a win, since the democrats had stated they would not give $1 early on.

 

For a wall.  You left out an important detail.  They wouldn't give $1 FOR A WALL.  Does the word "wall" appear anywhere in the bill?

 

 

[Cryingdick]

2 hours ago, bannork said:

i thought he promised the Mexicans would pay for it, not US taxpayers.

 

Well not one more dollar for an immorality cried the opposition. 

[Peterw42]

4 minutes ago, bushdoctor said:

The article also says signing the spending bill was a defeat for Trump

He signed the bill but didnt get funding for his vanity project, thats a defeat.

 

Quote : The funding bill represents a legislative defeat for him since it contains no money for his proposed wall - the focus of weeks of conflict between him and Democrats in Congress.

 

7 minutes ago, bushdoctor said:

Trump made no mention of the spending bill in his speech, but I watched it...and he did.

Trump made no mention when talking to the media.

 

Quote : Trump made no mention of the bill in rambling comments to the media in the White House's Rose Garden.

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Finally. I have long been waiting for this announcement. This is now the most important issue for Trump. His base needs the wall, and the haters also need it for their and their future children's safety, security and preservation of the American state - even if they don't understand that. To put the 8 billion requested into perspective just consider how much the US government hands out yearly in "aid" freebies across the world to countries that hate us. Never has a POTUS achieved so much in any time frame. That 45 has crammed achievement after achievement in just 2 years is nothing short of miraculous. Go the wall!

Ok, your opinion.

But why is it an emergency now and not for the past 2 years?

On top of that, is it an emergency anyway?

[Cryingdick]

34 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Trump declares a national emergency to bypass Congress, an act in direct contradiction with the Constitutional separation  of powers, checks and balances.

 

Illiberals rejoice at the actions of a President assuming the powers of a dictator.

 

In truth, this abuse of power has exposed Trump to the end of his Presidency.

 

Congress will enact their rights under the National Emergencies Act and vote to block the President which will place a duty under the act for the Senate to vote on the House’s resolution within a period not exceeding 18 days.

 

Republican Senators are about to have their nuts placed between the jaws of a vice.

 

Enjoy!

 

Nobody is celebrating. You think way too much about this does Trump regularly appear in your dreams? The Trump obsession online is crazy. Meanwhile back in flyover America everything is doing pretty good.