Donald Trump declares national emergency to build border wall, gets blasted by Democrats for unlawful ‘power grab’ that does ‘great violence’ to constitution
- Trump’s extraordinary move would allow him to bypass Congress, which denied him funds for the wall in a spending bill
- But critics are already planning a legal challenge, and say the manoeuvre sets a dangerous precedent
US President Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency in order to build a wall on the US-Mexico border without funding from Congress, a rare step immediately slammed by Democrats as an unlawful “power grab.”
The extraordinary declaration frees Trump to seek to redirect billions of dollars of federal funds to stop what he called an “invasion” of drugs, gangs, human traffickers and undocumented migrants across the southern US border.
“I’m going to be signing a national emergency … Everyone knows that walls work,” the president told reporters at the White House.
Trump made the declaration after agreeing to a spending measure that will keep federal agencies operational through September 30 – a relief for lawmakers who had fretted about the possibility of a second crippling government shutdown.
Trump’s US-Mexico border wall could take 10 years to build, even with 10,000 workers
But the spending measure falls wells short of the US$5.7 billion that Trump has been demanding for a wall on the 2,000-mile (3,200km) southern border.
Instead, the emergency declaration would help Trump bypass Congress and get the money that lawmakers refused to give him.