by Serena H.
A wall, a fence, maybe a doggy door. The border wall between the US and Mexico has been a big platform point throughout President Trump’s time in the Oval Office. There’s been plenty of discussion in a previous article on the cost of the border wall. Since then, there has been a government shutdown about the budget, discussion around actual costs and even an executive order for a national emergency from President Trump.
President Trump’s executive order, issued on January 25th, 2017, rationalizes the purpose of the wall being for national security. In the order, he explains that there is a strain on the Federal government to fund illegal immigrants and thus must enforce this order to defend America from the Southern Border. The people he specifically highlights are the drug dealers and human traffickers, etc.
This order demands the immediate building of the wall. President Trump enacted this executive order with the use of a national emergency after the issues with Congress about the budget. National emergencies are within the ability of the president, and are used by many presidents. The biggest issue with this order is that even Trump himself stated that it was not necessary to do so. He became impatient with Congress and decided to take action.
Of course Congress had an issue with this. The House passed a resolution to stop the national emergency with a 245 to 182 vote. Within the next couple weeks, the Senate must vote on this resolution to pass it or not. At the moment, there is a high chance due to the sway of a few Republicans to support the resolution. With those declarations, there is only one vote needed for the resolution to pass in the Senate. If it passes, Trump has discussed his intent to veto the resolution. If he does so, there can be another vote, though it needs a 2/3rds vote from both chambers.
Even if the veto happens, it is likely that President Trump will be taken to court over his executive order after being sued by multiple states. Many have an issue with this because of Congress’s role of organizing spending, stated within the Constitution. The president has an exception in case of emergencies, which Trump has chosen. The biggest issue with this being that he stated it was not necessary, so not truly an emergency. Some view this as unconstitutional due to President Trump’s over-reaching in his power and place set by the Constitution,and only instituting the executive order with the national emergency declaration due to his impatience and disagreements with Congress passing a budget to include funding for the border wall.
The wall at the southern border continues to make headlines as discussions on it costs and necessities are still commencing. As the conversation continues, there is push-back on both sides. Congress not agreeing with the costs President Trump has demanded, and Trump’s opposition to the time it is taking. This has all resulted in the national emergency instituted by Trump that has only caused more turmoil in the Capital and within other states that oppose this approach to building the wall. So much controversy and development on the topic, so what’s next?
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