President Trump says he will declare a national emergency to build his wall if the Democrats refuse to fund it
The longest government shutdown in history is over. The Democrats claimed that President Trump held 800,000 government employees hostage for his border wall. Polls show that the president’s approval rating plunged to 34 percent. That’s probably why Trump agreed to reopen the government for three weeks.
Trump says that if Congress doesn’t come to an agreement by February 15 that includes funding for his wall, he will declare a national emergency to build it.
A national emergency? Illegal immigration as a national emergency is a real stretch. It would be a national emergency if Mexico fired rockets and floated incendiary balloons at the United States like Hamas does to Israel. A national emergency would occur if our electric grid system were to be compromised. It would be a national emergency if Russia attacked one of our NATO allies or if North Korea attacked South Korea. If all of our big banks were to fail, that would constitute a national emergency. It would be a national emergency if a catastrophic earthquake caused California to disappear in the Pacific Ocean. But illegal immigration … that hardly qualifies.
The only emergency here is the emergency Trump created for himself with his campaign promises to build a wall that Mexico would pay for. Whatever gave him the idea that Mexico, which benefits economically from the illegal immigration, would pay for his wall? By making the wall a cornerstone of his campaign, Trump has boxed himself into the mess he now finds himself in. in.
The Democrats are united in their resolute opposition to build that wall. They believe the majority of Americans do not favor building the wall. The Democratic opposition leaves Trump with only two choices. He can either shut the government down again on February 15, or he can declare a national emergency and take the $5.5 billion he wants out of the military’s construction funds.
And Trump faces another problem. If he declares a national emergency, he will probably be shot down by the courts.
Do we really need that wall? InSight Crime notes that since October, criminal organizations have smuggled more than two dozen Central American migrant groups – each numbering in the hundreds – to remote stretches of the US-Mexico border. This would indicate the need for a border wall. But while a wall would reduce the number of illegals crossing the border, large numbers of them would still be able to climb over it or burrow underneath it. A better solution would be for Trump to double or even triple the size of the Border Patrol. And the Democrats are more likely to go for that.
And what about the American people. Most are only too happy to have illegals, take care of their lawns, clean their houses, pick up the garbage, fix their roofs, fill the potholes in their streets, etc. Many businesses hire illegals, knowing that their green cards are forgeries. And you can bet cities, including Houston, employ illegals with obviously forged green cards. Even some of the most vocal opponents of illegal immigration are using illegals to mow their yards and keep their homes clean.
In 2016, after celebrating Mass on the Mexican side of the U.S. border, reporters asked Pope Francis what he thought about Trump’s campaign promise to build a border wall. He said: “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel.” And in Panama on Wednesday, Francis said about the wall: “It is the fear that makes us crazy,” a subtle hint that Trump is a nutjob.
Trump, if he makes it that far, cannot win reelection with only his base – which is estimated at around 35 percent of the voters – supporting him. But Trump’s dilemma is also the Republican Party’s dilemma. That damn wall can not only bring Trump down, but it could also bring down the GOP in 2020.
Howie: I think most people have overlooked the importance of Trump’s background and experience. He’s always run a family owned and operated business where he got everything he wanted and no one could question him. Add that to his practice of stiffing contractors after they did the work so he could negotiate a lower price and what do you have?
A president who doesn’t understand that his word isn’t law and who doesn’t understand that in politics if he’s ever going to make deals, he has to live up to his word.
It’s not just declaring a national emergency to fund a wall even though the constitution says all government expenditures have to be based on congressional appropriations. He’s threatened to issue an executive order essentially amend the Fourteenth Amendment’s definition of citizenship. And, he thinks he can do it.
His entire life experience is that he got what he wanted because he wanted it. He’s never had to answer to anyone except his father.
There is nothing wrong with the head of a family business running it like a dictator. I bet most family owned businesses are that way. But that experience doesn’t translate well into a political job like president of the United States.
ehHe fired a secretary of state who had run a public company so big that the Trump Organization would have been a rounding error in its annual report. One of the reasons is that the secretary kept telling the president that he couldn’t do things simply because he wanted to.
And, the president has never had to look at the downstream consequences of decisions. Take his idea of using $5 billion in military construction funds to build his wall.
The military has a long history of making do. It’s only been the last few years that the World War II temporary buildings (which had a life span of five years) have disappeared from Army posts.
Part of that $5 billion might be for housing for troops and their families. Decent housing is necessary to attract and keep people in the military. Or it might be for a new high-tech logistical facility to support military operations. Or it might be a new runway at an air force base whose main runway if in terrible shape.
Military construction projects over a few hundred thousand dollars are specifically authorized by congress and subject to specific appropriations. That means that the military had to convince the civilians in the department of defense a project was necessary, then DOD had to convince congress that it was necessary and high enough on the military’s wish list to be funded. The projects to be built with that $5 billion have been in the pipeline for years. They’re probably needed badly.
During the Obama Administration, Sen. Mitch McConnell kept talking about “regular order.” The wall should be subject to regular order. Administration studies should be prepared to see if building a physical barrier is the best way to stop illegal immigration or whether the money might be better spent on something else. Then, the administration could make its case to the appropriate congressional committees which could in turn make policy judgments as to the way to proceed. That’s regular order.
One thought on immigration. Everyone should go to Youtube and watch Ann Coulter on the Bill Maher show last Friday. She made a couple of important points. Her basic premise is that the Koch brothers (and she used that phrase) and the chambers of commerce want illegal immigration for a cheap work force. And, she’s right.
it’s a whole lot cheaper to hire an illegal alien carpenter to build houses than it is to hire a journeyman American carpenter. That’s why the Trump Organization has hired illegal alien workers for some of its projects.
Birthright citizenship is not in the 14th Amendment. Prof. Lino Graglia has done excellent scholarship addressing this very point. See also Ann Coulter’s treatment of the issue in Adios America.
Harris County just went Blue, and it is not going back. In five yrs give or take, either Texas or Florida (or both) will go permenantly Blue, and then the GOP will be finished as a national party.
“But what emergency?” Nothing less than the fate of the republic.
If you are looking at CNN polls, 34% is a high water mark. Rasmussun had him dip from the 46-48% down to 43-45%. Big deal.
“…. if Mexico fired rockets and floated incendiary balloons at the United States like Hamas does to Israel….”
They are firing ECONOMIC rockets into the US. Each and every illegal that sneaks across costs the US lots of money. If they get caught or surrender, that’s probably tens of thousands of dollars catching them, detaining them, checking their identity and background, then going through the legal process to deport them. But hey, let’s say one stays, like the pregnant Honduran caravan member who crossed our rickety ass fence while pregnant, then gave birth to her anchor baby two days later. Boom. You just added a $ 15,000 hospital delivery to her cost to the US taxpayer, and we haven’t even begun to talk about the 18 year long joy it will be for taxpayers to pay for her little nino or nina…..Medicaid, food stamps, WIC, ESL classes at school, with free breakfast and lunch included. That’s ONE rocket. There are hundreds of thousands of rockets that are fired. Even the ones we deport cost money. Wouldn’t it be better if we spent that money on new roads, bridges, libraries, flood control, schools, fire stations, etc.?
What Mexico is doing is firing human rockets and waging economic terrorism against the US.
Emergency? Hell yeah it’s an emergency. We have to do something to stop the constant barrage of economic rockets.
Bill, thank you so much for setting me straight. You have lit a bright light in my dim brain. Living this far from the border, I was not aware that Mexico is firing thousands of economic rockets at us. And aren’t also MS-13 rockets fired at us by Honduras and Guatemala? This is far worse than Hamas firing explosive rockets at Israel.
This is truly a national emergency of epic proportions and calls for us to retaliate with all our might. Only President Trump has the guts to nuke Mexico and he will do it when the weather conditions will carry the resulting nuclear cloud south. That way Honduras and Guatemala will get a taste of what is in store for them if they don’t stop firing their MS-13 rockets at us as well. If that wimp Obama had nuked Mexico, Trump would not have found it necessary to shut the government down.
Oops, something just occurred to me. On second thought, nuking Mexico may not be such a good idea. It would lead the surviving Mexicans to flee to this country. Our hospitals would be overwhelmed by patients seeking treatment for radiation sickness and burns. There will be far, far more Mexicans getting government aid than now. And we will end up spending billions rebuilding Mexico like we did with Germany and Japan after WW2.
A wall seems to be the best solution, but not the wall President Trump is calling for. We need a 1,900-mile long 30 ft. high and 6 ft. wide concrete wall with crenellations manned by National Guard troops. That will protect us from those economic and MS-13 rockets and cost far less than the aftermath of a nuclear bombing.
And a thousand years from now, archeologists will rank the Great Wall of America as one of the ‘Seven Wonders of the World’ along with the Great Wall of China.
Howie,
At the risk of being argumentative, what’s the difference between the Honduran woman blowing up $ 15,000 worth of hospital property with a bomb, or costing the hospital $ 15,000 for delivering her child? There is no difference.
I stand by my comparison…..it’s economic terrorism.
We must build barriers to stop these people from entering in the first place, and change the laws to prevent those that do make it in from becoming wards of the state.
The actual cost to America for Illegal immigrants is $338.3 BILLION dollars a year, $45 Billion sent back to their home countries. $11 to 27 Billion in state paid welfare, $21 Billion for food stamps,. WIC, etc., $2.5 Billion in Medicaid, $12 Billion to educate them because they don’t speak English, $3 million PER DAY to incarcerate the ones who don’t escape back home after they commit crimes here, (30% of the Federal Prison inmates are illegals), $90 Billion per year for Welfare, and $200 Billion per year in suppressed wages that would otherwise to got to legal American citizens. Unnecessary expenses that high constitute an emergency !!
Some folks consider those inconvenient facts to be hate facts.
The point of legal immigration is to cherry pick….accept people who will come here and be makers, not takers.
Spot on Howie! One more point; Pelosi schooled Trump. He is too scared of her to give her a nickname.
Prescient sarcasm. Good stuff!
I have no problem with calling unchecked immigration and a flood of criminal activity connected with that unchecked immigration a national emergency. I don’t know that the wall will do any good, but it certainly will not do any harm and makes a worthwhile public policy statement. Build the damn thing.
Hey Howie I’m American and can assure you ain’t speaking for me. Trump’s approval? What about congress’s, what about the media’s?
I blame the GOP for this mess more than any other individual or collective. As a group they have lied to us for 33 years and thus allowed the dems to do what they have done to get us here. The dems don’t have to assure their base they want to control immigration because their base doesn’t care. The gopers do assure us they are for border security and do all they can to thwart any real effort to do so.
The wall is something we voters can see. The laws that allow the illegals to claim amnesty for hangnails we don’t see. No walls = amnesty, bingo citizenship, lottery visas, anchor babies, family reunification. All of it should be eliminated. But americans such as yourself are all good with it.
What’s your motive?
I’m the 10th comment. You’re polling below Trump as I write this.
I believe this is appropriate and we are the frog.
The boiling frog is a fable describing a frog being slowly boiled alive. The premise is that if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog
Of course it’s a national emergency and we must have a Wall at all costs! Just ask Dan Crenshaw.
I’d be a lot more inclined to listen to Dan Crenshaw than Pat Bryan.
Come to think of it, I’d be more inclined to listen to Kermit the Frog than Pat Bryan.
You know the Never Trumpers never cease to amaze me. If you do not support a wall on the southern border – just say so! But I suppose its easier to bash President Trump for wanting to put in proven passive border security systems than justify an open borders position.
As for Trump being able to declare a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act of 1974, he would appear to be in good company. There have been seven Presidents since this law was enacted and since that time there have been 54 national emergencies declared by those Presidents. Of the 54 declared emergencies, 28 are still considered active and are renewed every year by the current President as required by statue. Here is the record of past Presidents who declared national emergencies going back to Jimmy Carter who signed the legislation into law:
President Total Active Closed
Obama 13 11 2
W. Bush 12 10 2
Clinton 17 6 11
HW Bush 4 0 4
Reagan 6 0 6
Carter 2 1 1
Trump 0 0 0
Here’s a list of the 28 active national emergencies:
1. Blocking Iranian Government Property (Nov. 14, 1979)
2. Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (Nov. 14, 1994)
3. Prohibiting Transactions with Terrorists Who Threaten to Disrupt the Middle East Peace Process (Jan. 23, 1995)
4. Prohibiting Certain Transactions with Respect to the Development of Iranian Petroleum Resources (Mar. 15, 1995)
5. Blocking Assets and Prohibiting Transactions with Significant Narcotics Traffickers (Oct. 21, 1995)
6. Regulations of the Anchorage and Movement of Vessels with Respect to Cuba (Mar. 1, 1996)
7. Blocking Sudanese Government Property and Prohibiting Transactions with Sudan (Nov. 3, 1997)
8. Blocking Property of Persons Who Threaten International Stabilization Efforts in the Western Balkans (Jun. 26, 2001)
9. Continuation of Export Control Regulations (Aug. 17, 2001)
10. Declaration of National Emergency by Reason of Certain Terrorist Attacks (Sept. 14, 2001)
11. Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions with Persons who Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism (Sept. 23, 2001)
12. Blocking Property of Persons Undermining Democratic Processes or Institutions in Zimbabwe (Mar. 6, 2003)
13. Protecting the Development Fund for Iraq and Certain Other Property in Which Iraq has an Interest (May 22, 2003)
14. Blocking Property of Certain Persons and Prohibiting the Export of Certain Goods to Syria (May 11, 2004)
15. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Undermining Democratic Processes or Institutions in Belarus (Jun. 16, 2006)
16. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Oct. 27, 2006)
17. Blocking Property of Persons Undermining the Sovereignty of Lebanon or Its Democratic Processes and Institutions (Aug. 1, 2007)
18. Continuing Certain Restrictions with Respect to North Korea and North Korean Nationals (Jun. 26, 2008)
19. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Conflict in Somalia (Apr. 12, 2010)
20. Blocking Property and Prohibiting Certain Transactions Related to Libya (Feb. 25, 2011)
21. Blocking Property of Transnational Criminal Organizations (Jul. 25, 2011)
22. Blocking Property of Persons Threatening the Peace, Security, or Stability of Yemen (May 16, 2012)
23. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Ukraine (Mar. 6, 2014)
24. Blocking Property of Certain Persons With Respect to South Sudan (Apr. 3, 2014)
25. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Conflict in the Central African Republic (May 12, 2014)
26. Blocking Property and Suspending Entry of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Venezuela (Mar. 9, 2015)
27. Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities (Apr. 1, 2015)
28. Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Burundi (Nov. 23, 2015)
Consequently, I don’t see many cases of where another country was firing missiles at the US or any other overt hostile acts. In fact, most of them seem to deal with preventing persons or property from entering the US. Imagine that! Seems like building a wall and preventing unauthorized persons, illegal drugs and human trafficking from crossing our borders seems very much in line with the previous use of executive power concerning national emergencies under the 1974 act. The evidence and precedence is overwhelmingly in favor of Trump and his authority to declare an emergency over the border situation given that Congress has refused to act in America’s interests. Yes, there will probably be a judicial challenge but it will probably be very short lived considering the preponderance of precedence already set by the previous six occupants of the White House.
Do not let your biased hatred of Trump have you buy into the liberal mainstream media narrative that declaring a national emergency to build a wall is not constitutional or is somehow going to open the doors for Democrats when they eventually retake the White House. Let clue you in, Democrats have used this power 32 times while the Republicans have only used it 22 times. Seems they already know what to do if they want to.
Support your President, build the wall!