Is the wall deal a go?

The 2016 election held many promises by the candidate’s campaigns, suggesting various reforms to unify our country and create a better future. Now President, Trump, declaring his administration would rid off illegal immigrants, lower the drug epidemic as well as decrease murder and terror by constructing a wall at our southern border. Here we are two years into his term, and the President has not yet secured his sought-after funding to fulfill his campaign promise.

President Trump declared a national emergency this past week as an attempt to increase the funding regarding his wall on the border, going against the wishes of White House attorneys who repeatedly warned him of the high risk for court failure, admitting, “I expect to be sued”.

This announcement marked the culmination of heated internal deliberations between the White House Counsel’s Office, the Justice Department, the Office of Management and Budget, lawmakers and the President over how to fund the wall.

Receiving $1.6 billion for his wall by Congress, the President quickly argued that it was not nearly enough and only offered a fraction of what he needed, “We’ve got to get rid of drugs, and gangs and people. It’s an invasion. We have an invasion of drugs and criminals coming into our country that we stop, but it’s very hard to stop.

With a wall, it would be very easy”. Soon after, Trump told aides he had to find a way to get his wall without Congress- declaring a national emergency. The declaration would give Trump access to roughly $8 billion, almost $3 billion more than Trump initially proposed. He argued that declaring an emergency was necessary because narcotics were pouring across the border, “we’re talking about an invasion of our country with drugs, human traffickers, with all types of criminals and gangs” he said.

However, Trump seemed to challenge his own case of urgency of the problem, “I could do the wall over a longer period of time, I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster. And I don’t have to do it for the election; I’ve already done a lot of wall for the election 2020. And the only reason we’re up here talking about this is because of the election because they want to try and win an election which it looks like they’re not going to be able to do”.

President Trump’s national emergency is already being legally challenged as many have predicted. At least two lawsuits have been filed in response to his declaration on Friday. Public Citizen filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., just hours after Trump’s announcement arguing that Trump exceeded his authority and disregarded the separation of powers outlined by the Constitution.

Citizens of Responsibility and Ethics argues that the White House did not provide the supporting documents needed to justify the declaration. Trump admits, “I’m learning. I mean, I am learning”. Is this declaration past the President’s capabilities? We will have to see.