National emergency a national disgrace
Trump’s unnecessary emergency predicated on racism and fear
Eric Boose / Opinion Editor / The USD Vista
In most cases, defeat is admitted with the waving of a white flag. On Feb. 15, President Donald Trump chose to admit it by signing an executive order. At a press conference in the Rose Garden, President Trump announced his declaration of a national emergency in order to fund a border wall before immediately admitting that the nation is not, in fact, facing an emergency.
“I didn’t need to do this,” Trump said. “But I’d rather do it much faster.”
Trump’s admission that the national emergency he had declared minutes earlier was not a true emergency not only undercut his already minimal credibility, but also openly admitted defeat to Congress. Of course, battles with Congress are to be expected in any presidency, and there is a respectable quality about knowing when one is beaten. However, the Trump presidency is not just any presidency. It is driven by the president’s inflated ego and Trump’s belief that he should be able to bend Congress to his every whim. For Trump to find himself unable to twist Congress’ arm on an issue as personally important as a border wall would tear at the already damaged concept of Trump as this unyielding negotiator, a ruthless businessman who always makes the deal.
Why, then, was Trump willing to lose face to gain his border wall? The wall was the cornerstone of Trump’s presidential campaign. It was a consistent, defined policy goal that he touted on the campaign trail: he would build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and he would make Mexico pay for it. If Trump were to fail to deliver the wall, he would surely consider his presidency a failure. With that in mind, Trump has made what he must consider sacrifices in order to get his wall. In the two years since his inauguration, some of his grand promises have fallen by the wayside. Mexico will no longer be paying for the wall. The wall is no longer necessarily a concrete wall, but instead just a physical barrier. As the layers of this proverbial onion have been peeled away, they are revealing a rotten core.
The wall was never about security. The wall is the byproduct of fear and racism, fear and racism that Trump cultivated throughout his campaign.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best…” Trump said when he declared his candidacy for president in 2015. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
In January, Trump claimed that thousands of Americans had been killed by immigrants, and implied that thousands more would die without a border wall. Trump’s hateful rhetoric is disgusting and intolerable, but what is most concerning is that his beliefs seemingly cannot be changed. At the press conference where he announced the national emergency, Trump openly refused to believe data, some of which has been produced by his administration, that presented evidence to oppose his beliefs. For example, Trump called data indicating that a majority of drug smuggling occurs at established border crossings, where his wall would not have an effect, a “lie.” Clearly, Trump’s concept of what is happening at the border is informed by Trump, and Trump alone.
With the president unwilling to be swayed by logic or reason on this issue, any fight will not be to change his mind, but to deny his action. On Presidents’ Day, 16 Democratic state attorneys general joined the list of lawsuits against Trump’s declaration. Xavier Becerra, Attorney General of California, leads the lawsuit. Trump is using the national emergency to expand his power and divert Department of Defense funding away from existing projects to raise the $8 billion he wants for the wall. The lawsuit alleges that that diversion of funding violates the separation of powers, as Congress is empowered to control government spending. Since Trump is diverting that funding from existing projects, Becerra asserts that states are put in harm’s way.
“If the president is essentially stealing money that’s been allocated to go to the various states for various purposes but no longer will, we’re being harmed,” Becerra said. “Our people are being harmed.”
Unfortunately, the National Emergencies Act grants the president a great deal of power once an emergency is declared. Also, the law does not define what constitutes an emergency, instead leaving it to the president’s discretion.
Equally unfortunately, much of the legal battle is out of the hands of citizens. On Tuesday, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed a resolution to cancel the executive order Trump used to declare the national emergency. The resolution is the most powerful way to forcibly deny Trump’s declaration and prevent him from diverting funding to the wall. Beyond its direct legal power, the resolution also offers some support to the lawsuit led by Becerra. By passing the resolution, the House has reasserted Congress’ power to control spending, a key piece of the logic supporting the lawsuit. The House resolution now moves on to the Republican-controlled Senate, where its passage is not guaranteed. Aside from personally calling Senators and imploring them to take action, there is little we can do to influence the federal debate on this issue. However, especially at USD, we the people have a moral obligation to act. Trump’s wall is a monument to a fear of immigrants, a fear of people who come from a different place, who look different than a majority of those in power. USD is located in one of the largest border communities in the country, and our city is inherently affected by immigration. It is therefore our moral obligation as a changemaker campus to try to change the negative perceptions of immigration and assuage the fears that lead to racism and nativism.