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.