An emergency is defined as “an unexpected situation that demands immediate attention.”<\/p>\n
Fires, hurricanes, floods and surprise enemy attacks come to mind, with the last seeming most descriptive of a “national” emergency.<\/p>\n
The president asserts that we have an “emergency” at the southern border but, alas, the above definition hardly justifies the use of that term.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Illegal border crossings are the lowest since 1971<\/p>\n
\u2014 Most illegal drugs are smuggled through ports of entry, not places needing walls<\/p>\n
\u2014 Undocumented immigrants commit fewer crimes than citizens<\/p>\n
\u2014 Recent funding provides several billions in needed improvements to border security programs and equipment<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Never one to be deterred by reasoning and facts, however, the president nonetheless proposes to proceed with a useless wall by:<\/p>\n
\u2014 Taking $2.5 billion from counter drug activities<\/p>\n
\u2014 Taking $3.6 million from the military<\/p>\n
His declaration of an emergency is an obvious, baseless attempt to subvert the Constitution, which vests spending power with the Congress, not the president.<\/p>\n
And he does this in order to undertake an action of personal obsession \u2014 not national security.<\/p>\n
The real national emergency resides in the White House!<\/p>\n
James DeFrancia<\/p>\n
Aspen<\/p>\n