Donald Trump won't let go of his border wall promise whatever the consequences
The US president's opponents say the crisis he describes is a nothing but a manufactured fallacy, writes Sky's Greg Milam.
Friday 15 February 2019 03:06, UK
Donald Trump's supporters would go wild every time he promised them that Mexico would pay for the wall on the southern border. This is not what they were expecting.
Not only is Mexico not writing a cheque but even America's elected representatives, including the Republicans that Trump leads, have refused to stump up the money.
So an unhappy president is to use his powers to declare a national emergency and shift money from elsewhere in the budget towards the border.
His opponents say the crisis he describes is a nothing but a manufactured fallacy, created solely so he doesn't lose face in not delivering that campaign promise to build the wall.
The use of those emergency powers will face legal challenges. There is a good chance that, like his executive actions on the travel ban and transgender military personnel, it will end up before the Supreme Court.
But the bigger question is what precedent his action sets.
Congress has "the power the purse" and congressional Republicans and Democrats are uneasy at a president ignoring and bypassing their legislative authority, riding rough-shod over them when he doesn't like the outcome.
Democrats have already raised the spectre of what this could mean in the future, when a Democrat occupant of the White House might decide to declare a national emergency on gun violence, healthcare or climate change, for example.
This puts many Republican members of the Congress in a bind.
Do they support the president's actions and tacitly accept those future consequences, or do they defy Trump and risk alienating the support his endorsement brings?
The question also remains as to how much of a crisis does actually exists on the border. And, if there is one, why has it taken the president so long to take emergency action?
Figures from US customs and border protection show illegal crossings at the southern border last year were barely a quarter of the number of a decade before.
Critics of the president say the problems he describes, of drug and people trafficking, actually take place at legal points of entry. Most undocumented migrants in the US arrive legally and then overstay visas.
A wall therefore, they say, will make no difference in solving those problems.
Trump points to the caravans of migrants leaving central America and making their way towards the US-Mexico border. He calls them threat to the safety of the American people.
A lot of people voted for Donald Trump in 2016 precisely because they do want that wall and he often campaigns now under the slogan "Promises made, promises kept".
This is one promise he is apparently not willing to let go, whatever the consequences.