Voting 59 to 41 today to reject 72-year-old President Donald Trump’s Feb. 15 border emergency, the U.S. Senate sets up a certain veto when the bill passes the president’s desk. Getting 12 Republicans to reject Trump’s emergency declaration, Republicans joined all 47 Democrats, led by Senate Miniority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) rebuking Trump for daring to cross into Article 1 territory. For Republicans voting with the Democrat minority, it wasn’t a rejection of Trump’s demand for more border security funding but rather a turf issue, having to do with the Congress responsible for allocating budget requests. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a supporter of the president, made it clear that the executive branch should not be in the business of allocating resources without Congressional approval. Paul knows that Democrats stonewalled Trump’s border security funding requests.
With some 11,000 illegal aliens crossing into the U.S. monthly, the Immigration Customs Enforcement [ICE] agency, Border Patrol and local law enforcement all agree that there’s a crisis on the U.S.-Mexican border. Democrats dispute calls from ICE, Border Patrol and local law enforcement for more border security, requiring more cash-and-personnel on the U.S.-Mexican border. Democrats have a hard time making the argument that there’s no real emergency on the border, when tens-of-thousands of children are dumped by their families on the Mexican border, knowing they’ll have a better life in the U.S. than staying South of the border. Democrats complain about ICE’s separation policy, preventing parents from uniting with children, despite the fact that most the children aren’t “separated,” just dumped at the border. Current ICE rules don’t allow minors to join parents in detention sites.
Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) screamed about Trump violating the U.S. constitution reaching into government coffers to fund more border security funding. Trump holds Article 2 powers as commander-in-chief to allocate resources from the Pentagon, if needed, to deal with national security issues. When Trump shut the government down Jan 25, it was after Pelosi and Schumer refused to negotiate with Trump on border security funding. Trump had requested $5.7 billion in border security funding to complete more miles of fencing, either non-existent or in need of repair. Pelosi and Schumer have made opposing Trump’s request for border funding a rallying cry for Democrats in the 2020 election. Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Tx), who announced today for president, advocates tearing down the border wall, winning him plaudits from his Party’s left wing.
No one really believes the U.S. should tear down the thousands of miles of border fence currently protecting the U.S. homeland. O’Rourke and other Democrats have taken the border wall debate as proof of Trump’s racism, trying to lock out disenfranchised groups South of the border. When voters decide in 2020, it will be one of the most stark contrasts between Democrats and Republicans ever seen in a presidential election. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urged his fellow Republicans to back the president, only to find 12 members joining Democrats. Democrats and Republicans opposed to Trump’s emergency declaration cite a dangerous precedent for executive overreach. Yet presidents over the 60 years have funded various military actions without Congressional approval, apparently breaching Article 1 authority. Congressional opposition is more about bucking Trump.
Trump’s on solid legal ground when it comes to his border emergency, something disputed by 47 Democrats and 12 Republicans. Whatever you want to call what’s happening on the U.S.-Mexico border, it falls into the definition of an emergency. “It’s an important legal statement, “ said Sen. Angus King (I-Me). “It tells the court this is explicitly not by Congress. By voting this resolution Congress is reentering we don’t approve this expenditure,” turning the controversy into a turf war between Article 1 and Article 2. Congress must deny that there’s a crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border. If you ask ICE, Border Patrol and local law enforcement, they all concur that the border’s in a crisis. Moritz College of Law professor Peter Shane says the resolution rejects Trump’s assertion that there’s indeed an emergency on the Southern border. Shane can’t deny what ICE, Border Patrol and local law enforcement say.
Turning the border crisis into a political issue, Schumer denies that any border emergency takes place on the Mexican border. “Democrats and Republicans both know the sad truth: The president did not declare an emergency because there is one,” said Schumer, turning today’s vote into pure politics. “He [Trump] declared an emergency because he lost in Congress and wants to get around it,” Schumer said. Schumer and Pelosi refused to negotiate with Trump in good faith, prompting the 35-day government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history. Pelosi and Schumer saw themselves scoring political points against Trump, prompting the president to end the shutdown Jan. 25. When Trump vetoes the resolution rejecting his border emergency, neither Democrats nor Republicans have the votes to override the veto. Playing more politics does the country no good.
