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Trump Announces State of Emergency for Border Wall Funds

This morning, President Trump announced that he will declare a national emergency over the nonexistent “border crisis” in an attempt to secure up to 8 billion dollars in emergency funds to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

In a press conference this morning, Trump announced that he “can do the wall over a longer period of time. [He] didn’t need to do this.” Trump is using a state of emergency unnecessarily in an attempt to fund a border wall after Congress appropriated roughly $1 billion for border security, not a wall.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have both released a statement that “The President’s actions clearly violate the Congress’s exclusive power of the purse, which our Founders enshrined in the Constitution.” Signing the declaration does not mean Trump will immediately get the funds; both the California and New York Attorney Generals have said they will sue Trump for the declaration.

Announcing a “state of emergency” diverts money away from real emergencies, such as hurricane and wildfire relief, issues that are exacerbated by climate change and the Trump administration’s unwillingness to support disaster prone areas.

This is the Trump Administration’s most recent attempt to criminalize migrants at the southern border in order to build the wall. This announcement follows last week’s conviction of four humanitarian aid workers for leaving water near the border for migrants. Migrants seeking asylum in the United States and their advocates are being criminalized under the Trump administration.

 

Media Resources: CNN 2/15/19, Washington Post 2/15/19, NBC News 2/15/19; Politifact 2/15/19; Politifact 12/20/17; The Guardian 2/15/19

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