Waters: America should rally against ‘Fake Emergency’, But Here’s Why That Won’t Keep Trump From Building the Wall
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) is at it again. Democrats’ poster-child for insanity believes that everybody should take to the streets to protest Trump’s “fake emergency,” but that’s not going to keep the president from building the border wall.
“And so it’s time for everybody to stand up. All hands on deck to refuse this president these fake emergency powers that he would like the have,” Waters said Friday on MSNBC. “And so I’m urging everybody get together —rally in every community across this country all this weekend, send a message to Washington, D.C., ‘No, Mr. President, we’re not going allow you to do this.”
Trump was forced to declare a national emergency so that, finally, something could be done to stem the tide of human trafficking, illegal immigration and drug smuggling at the U.S. southern border. The five most-recent presidents all said there was a crisis at the border and did little to remedy the situation, mainly stymied by a Congress unwilling to secure the country. Propaganda from globalists and progressives painted border security as inhuman, dastardly and, as Speaker Pelosi put it, immoral. President Trump is going to do it without them.
“Many in Congress are condemning President Donald Trump’s just announced decision to declare a national emergency to help build a wall on the southern border, but such a declaration would apparently be both legal and effective,” said legal scholar and George Washington University Law School Professor John Banzhaf.
Trump came away from the most recent round of negotiations with a real win. Congress approved $1.375 billion in funding for physical barriers at the border, more than they’ve approved in years. Because Democrats put all sorts of limits on the funding, and they failed to authorize the amount that border agents had requested, Trump was forced to declare a national emergency that will allow him to enlist resources from the Defense Department, including up to $8 billion to use anywhere and any way he chooses. (Related: Here’s how the Pentagon Will Help Build the Wall)
- 10 U.S.C., Section 12302 (Activation of the Ready Reserve) authorizes involuntary activation of the Ready Reserve, which includes members who, when mobilized, perform a federal mission at the direction of the secretary of defense. This allows the Secretary of Defense to activate military members currently on inactive duty in the Ready Reserve (Inactive Ready Reserve) to be activated should he see fit.
- 10 U.S.C., Section 284(b)(7) (Counterdrug Support) authorizes DOD to support the counterdrug activities of other federal agencies, including DHS, with the construction of roads, fences, and lighting to block drug smuggling corridors across international boundaries. DOD will review and respond appropriately to any request for assistance received from DHS. “Fences” are not defined in section 284(b)(7) and courts would likely agree that any physical barrier would meet the description.
- Per 10 U.S.C., Section 2808 (Military Construction (MILCON)), this declaration of a national emergency at the southern border requiring the use of the armed forces authorizes the secretary of defense to determine whether border barriers are necessary to support the use of the armed forces and to re-direct unobligated DOD MILCON funding to construct border barriers if required. Section 2808 is less ambiguous. It authorizes border barriers as the Secretary of Defense sees fit.
Democrats got suckered into giving the president money for a portion of the wall, so that he could use his authority to build the other parts that the Border Patrol has requested. Congress has no way to limit where or how he builds whatever he decides should be built.
“We’ll take as much money as you can give us and then we’ll go off and find the money someplace else, legally, in order to secure that southern barrier, but this is going to get built with or without Congress,” acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said.
The president is building the border wall, no matter what Mad Maxine Waters or the rest of the Democrats think.