As I See It
National emergency declarations should be for real emergencies
It is good that the President has the
ability to declare a national emergency. Such a move was likely
necessary after the United States was attacked on September 11.
Declaring a national emergency allowed President Bush to free
up federal funding to respond to a true emergency that was not planned
for.
But such a declaration must be used judiciously. And declaring a
national emergency over a burning desire to build a wall along the
U.S.-Mexico border is not being judicious. It is in fact the opposite.
The President’s unnecessary declaration is at the
very least an overreach. There is no crisis at our border, other than
our country can’t seem to figure out a way to allow citizens seeking
asylum to do so if they meet the proper criteria. This is a contrived
crisis, a fabricated fear. The fact is the number
of people trying to cross the Mexico border have dropped. And not all
of these people are lawless thugs as the President suggests. And where
will the wall money come from if Trump is successful? Perhaps from the
aid promised to Puerto Rico after the hurricanes.
Hasn’t he insulted that island enough already? The emergency it seems
is not at our border, but in the nation’s capitol.
rob
February 24, 2019 at 10:40 am
There is a crisis at the Mexican/US border. There is also a process for legally obtaining US citizenship. However, law and due process is ignored by many of those those entering the US. To make matters worse, illegal criminals enjoy sanctuary and are protected from federal law enforcement in many cities in the US. Contrived crisis? Fabricated fear? That is irresponsible fake news urnalism Scott. Havier Hernandez Morales recently opened fire on a California police officer during a traffic stop. Fortunately, the officer was not injured and the illegal was shot and killed. He had been deported three times, arrested and released despite ICE objection on several occasions. What does this have to do with a border wall? Border security will help limit the number of illegal criminals coming into this country. We can debate all day about the number of illegals that kill US citizens. But, what is an acceptable number Scott? If we can prevent one murder by an illegal due to improved border security and enforcement of our immigration laws, won’t that have been worth it? Liberals are great for telling citizens how much money they should have, how many guns they should have, etc. What is your “acceptable” number of US citizens that may be killed by illegals Scott?
Travis Simpson
February 26, 2019 at 8:52 am
You can hate on Trump all you want given your personal political point of view. Whether you like President Trump or not, it doesn’t change the fact that we have illegal aliens coming into this country and they are killing our “citizens” whether by drunk driving accidents, criminal actions, etc. These killings wouldn’t take place if these people weren’t here, as they shouldn’t be based on our nation’s immigration laws. You can argue that the large majority of illegal aliens are hard working, good people, but they have disrespected our nation’s sovereign right to determine who should be here and who should not. This blatant disrespect sets the foundation for these people to disrespect the rest of our nation’s laws and it’s citizens. This situation has become a crisis on the border with crime rates jumping particularly in border states. The citizens there have the right to expect personal safety when they leave their homes to go to work or school or for whatever reason. President Trump recognizes the problem on the border for what it is; it is a crisis that the rest of our politicians have ignored for years. President Trump is going to fix this problem with or without their assistance. As President he has the right to declare this problem as a national emergency in order to better protect our people. The easy thing for him to do is to do what all the other politicians have done for years and ignore it; thank God this man has the back bone and intestinal fortitude to recognize this problem and do something about it. Building this wall will undoubtedly reduce the amount of illegal aliens from entering this country. Will it stop all…no, but it will reduce a significant amount of them from getting in as they do now. If declaring a national emergency is the mechanism that gets this done, I believe that the large majority of American citizens are with President Trump in doing this. These powers are legally part of President Trump’s executive powers. Some have suggested that Democrats will use this to declare a national emergency regarding firearms and making them illegal for private citizens. This use of declaring a national emergency would be an over reach because the 2nd amendment to the Constitution guarantees the citizenry the right to keep and bear arms. President Trump is being forced to declare this national emergency as a part of national security which falls within his scope of authority.