An emergency is defined as “an unexpected situation that demands immediate attention.”
Fires, hurricanes, floods and surprise enemy attacks come to mind, with the last seeming most descriptive of a “national” emergency.
The president asserts that we have an “emergency” at the southern border but, alas, the above definition hardly justifies the use of that term.
— Illegal border crossings are the lowest since 1971
— Most illegal drugs are smuggled through ports of entry, not places needing walls
— Undocumented immigrants commit fewer crimes than citizens
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— Recent funding provides several billions in needed improvements to border security programs and equipment
Adding to that data, our national intelligence chiefs, in a recent annual briefing, do not even mention our southern border among threats to national security.
Never one to be deterred by reasoning and facts, however, the president nonetheless proposes to proceed with a useless wall by:
— Taking $2.5 billion from counter drug activities
— Taking $3.6 million from the military
His declaration of an emergency is an obvious, baseless attempt to subvert the Constitution, which vests spending power with the Congress, not the president.
And he does this in order to undertake an action of personal obsession — not national security.
The real national emergency resides in the White House!
James DeFrancia
Aspen