The National Emergency

[KeithE]

[Haruo]

Did you mean"Native Americans" or did you mean native-born Americans.

[KeithE]

[Sandy]

Bottom line: Trump lost this battle in a major way.

The Democrats were already well out in front of this as far as polling data and favorability was concerned. People who keep up with the facts and know what is happening, including even larger majorities in the border cities and states along the border, know, and have seen what works. The Democrats just beefed up the border patrol's budget by $1.6 billion, more than they were asking for and an action that effectively silences the claims they want an "open border" or don't care about border security. They do, more than Republicans because for Democrats, clearly, it is about realistic solutions to stop illegal crossings and not just political grandstanding to gather cheers from rally attendees. What the Democrats just did will give law enforcement what it needs to stop the drug traffic, or severely slow it down as it comes through the ports of entry.

Disapproval of Trump policies and actions has been edging its way up in polling data toward the 60% threshold for some time now. On the issue of declaring this a national emergency, opposition is at 65%. Opposition to building a wall is in similar territory. It is going to be difficult to defend taking money from a fund that provides for housing construction for military families, improvement of services and facilities for military personnel, research for better technology and equipment, disaster relief funding for victims of fires, hurricanes and floods and for rebuilding of infrastructure damaged by natural disasters. What will happen seems predictable. Lawsuits have already been filed, the courts will stay the spending until a ruling is issued, the facts are pretty clear that there is no national emergency, there will be congressional resolutions against it, the courts will declare the president's action unconstitutional and there will be no wall.

[KeithE]

[William Thornton]

Keith will be pleased to learn that a vote is already scheduled on the emergency of Donald Trump being president. Look for that at the latest on November 3, 2020.

[Rvaughn]

This is just a general reply to the general topic, rather than directly to Keith's OP. The info there is too busy and too much for my nighttime brain!

I am mostly ambivalent toward the physical barriers on the U.S. border. When Trump was running on the wall concept in the primaries (or whenever he first brought it up) I laughed, thought it was crazy, and that such a thing would never happen. Then later I learned that Congress had already voted and a President had already signed and construction was already completed on roughly 700 miles of physical barriers between the United States and Mexico. So much for my laugh!

I understand that any POTUS has national emergency powers, but I don't believe building a physical barrier on the border rises to that level. Really can't conceive of how it would ever. I don't like Presidents finagling powers to get what they want just because Congress won't give the money to them. We have separation of powers for a reason.

To me some of the "wall is immoral" folks look a little hypocritical too. "The wall is immoral and we voted to build 55 more miles of immorality."

[Haruo]

[Sandy]

[Rvaughn]

[Rvaughn]

[Rvaughn]

[Sandy]

Not sure what the History.com piece is calling a "barricade" or a "fence." I grew up about 40 miles north of the border in Arizona and there was always a barrier or fence that I can remember extending out for miles from ports of entry. At Nogales, the fence was chain link, but it ran in both directions for miles out into the desert from the port of entry, about 12 feet high. One of my Dad's work buddies had a small ranch at Lochiel, Arizona and the south boundary of their property was the border. It was a really remote area, but even there, the federal government had built a low barrier fence to keep vehicles from driving across anywhere except the port of entry. The Lochiel port has been closed for a while and I know they replaced the chain link at Nogales with slatted steel barriers but how many more miles they've added, I don't know. What's visible is the checkpoints on the highways.

[Rvaughn]

I don't know either. Maybe there is a semantic issue about who built or financed the older fences/barriers? Sounds like the earlier ones that History.com mentions were built by either the U.S. Bureau of Animal Industry or border towns. Congressional Research Service seems to agree with History.com dating the barriers to the 1990s. If there were some fences there when you grew up, that is obviously earlier than the 1990s, though not "always".

[Sandy]

[Haruo]

Here's an interesting . I was intrigued to learn that there were 31 currently in effect when Trump added his first. I would like to find a list of all of them that have been declared since Carter regularized the process. I am interested in finding out if any of the earlier ones were declared with the sole intent of acquiring funding that the Congress had been unwilling to appropriate, and if so for what.

[Rvaughn]

Sandy, you are free to define what is immoral related to the wall as you wish. That doesn't change the fact that certain Democratic politicians found currency in saying that the border wall is immoral.

[Rvaughn]

Leland, has a list of Declared National Emergencies from 1976 to 2007 (stops there because that's when it was written). Don't know if this helps with what you want. The text of the act itself can be found .

[Haruo]

Yes, that is helpful, but it leaves out the end of Bush II and all of Obama.

[Sandy]

[Rvaughn]

[Haruo]