As you've probably heard by now, President Donald Trump followed through on his threat to declare a national emergency at the southern border Friday morning, during a live televised announcement from the Rose Garden, after Congress refused to give him billions of dollars to build a border wall in their funding bill that avoided yet another government shutdown. A-what now? If your face looks like this rn:
We gotchu. Join us as we try to figure out WTF is going on...
So, uh, what's a "national emergency?"
The president has the power to declare a "national emergency" whenever he (or, ahem, she) sees fit, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. This basically means that commanders-in-chief can bypass Congress and get cashola fast for things they think are urgent. (In this case, the money will reportedly be yanked from military construction projects, counternarcotics programs, and other sources).
Often, this power has been used to address public health emergencies, like the 2009 H1N1 flu virus, or terrorism threats, like the aftermath of 9/11.
But because the situation at the border has been going on for years, Trump's critics strongly disagree that it is an "emergency." Instead, they're calling his move "a power grab."
Why did Trump declare one?
Because Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, queen of the pity-clap, refused to give Trump $5.7 billion in funding that he requested in order to build the border wall.
Instead, Congress voted Thursday to fund the government while allocating only $1.4 billion for border "barriers." Trump's declaration allows him to access about $8 billion, without Congress approving it.
Listen, Trump basically admitted this morning that his "emergency" was not actually an emergency. "I could build the wall over a longer period of time. I didn't need to do this," he said in the Rose Garden outside the White House. "But I want to do it much faster."
Good to know.
So, how are people responding?
They're not loving this.
Most Democrats condemned Trump's plans (duh), with Speaker Pelosi and Minority Senate Leader Chuck Schumer releasing a joint statement.
The Women's March also weighed in:
There is a national emergency: Donald Trump’s unconstitutional power grab. We just elected the most diverse Congress in U.S. history, with an unprecedented number of women. Trump, no longer able to get his way, is claiming wartime executive power to undermine the congressional women’s wave we voted into office.
Even Republicans are skeptical. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said this "sets a bad precedent for future presidents—both Democrats and Republican—who might seek to use this same maneuver to circumvent Congress to advance their policy goals."
"I wish he wouldn't have done that," said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
But wait...do we really have an "invasion of drugs and criminals" barging into the U.S.?
Nope.
At his press conference Friday, Trump argued that "an invasion of drugs and criminals coming into our country" necessitated his extreme move.
To get all well, actually on this situation: 90 percent of heroin, 80 percent of fentanyl, 88 percent of cocaine, and 87 percent of methamphetamine seized along the border in the 2018 fiscal year were caught at legal crossing points, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protections.
Recently convicted drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman operated his smuggling operation through underground tunnels.
Not sure how a wall will help that situation.
And by the way, undocumented immigrants commit fewer crimes than U.S.-born citizens, according to multiple recent studies. Criminology published research in March 2018 that concluded states with higher percentages of undocumented immigrants do not have higher rates of crime. In fact, states with more undocumented immigrants had lower crime rates than other states.
People are also pointing out that there are some other major issues that could use this cash being snatched for a border wall...
So...will he get away with this?
‾\_(ツ)_/‾
The move could come back to haunt Trump: According to a recent CNN/SSRS poll, 66 percent of Americans said he should not declare a national emergency to fund the border wall.
There's also a possibility that this will end up tied up in court.
In the meantime, Trump's advisers are out here saying they're gonna build this thing STAT.
Jessica Goodman is the New York Times bestselling author of young adult thrillers They Wish they Were Us, They’ll Never Catch Us, and The Counselors. She is the former op-ed editor at Cosmopolitan magazine, and was part of the 2017 team that won a National Magazine Award in personal service. She has also held editorial positions at Entertainment Weekly and HuffPost, and her work has been published in outlets like Glamour, Condé Nast Traveler, Elle, and Marie Claire.
