First Trump Veto: Kicks Back Resolution Denying Border Security Emergency Declaration
House Democrats immediately began working to compile enough votes to override Trump’s veto.
Friday, Trump issued his first veto of what he called a “reckless resolution,” which denied implementation of Trump’s southern border crisis emergency declaration.
Watch a portion of Trump’s statement here:
After Trump signed the veto, Attorney General Barr told reporters that Trump’s emergency declaration was, “clearly authorized under the law.”
At veto signing, Attorney General William Barr said the president's declaration of a National Emergency on the southern border was "clearly authorized under the law." Barr said it's "exactly the kind of emergency the president is permitted to address under the Emergencies Act." pic.twitter.com/bsfUKL9Bod
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) March 15, 2019
Atty Gen Barr said the crisis of illegal immigration is "right on our doorstep." Barr tells @POTUS that his declaration of a National Emergency is "solidly grounded in law."
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) March 15, 2019
House Democrats immediately began working to compile enough votes to override Trump’s veto.
12 Senate Republicans caucused with Democrats to pass the resolution, all maintaining the emergency declaration was out of constitutional bounds.
Full text of veto here:
To the House of Representatives:
I am returning herewith without my approval H.J. Res. 46, a joint resolution that would terminate the national emergency I declared regarding the crisis on our southern border in Proclamation 9844 on February 15, 2019, pursuant to the National Emergencies Act.
As demonstrated by recent statistics published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and explained in testimony given by the Secretary of Homeland Security on March 6, 2019, before the House Committee on Homeland Security, our porous southern border continues to be a magnet for lawless migration and criminals and has created a border security and humanitarian crisis that endangers every American. Last month alone, CBP apprehended more than 76,000 aliens improperly attempting to enter the United States along the southern border — the largest monthly total in the last 5 years. In fiscal year 2018, CBP seized more than 820,000 pounds of drugs at our southern border, including 24,000 pounds of cocaine, 64,000 pounds of methamphetamine, 5,000 pounds of heroin, and 1,800 pounds of fentanyl. In fiscal years 2017 and 2018, immigration officers nationwide made 266,000 arrests of aliens previously charged with or convicted of crimes. These crimes included approximately 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes, and 4,000 killings. In other words, aliens coming across our border have injured or killed thousands of people, while drugs flowing through the border have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.
The current situation requires our frontline border enforcement personnel to vastly increase their humanitarian efforts. Along their dangerous trek to the United States, 1 in 3 migrant women experiences sexual abuse, and 7 in 10 migrants are victims of violence. Fifty migrants per day are referred for emergency medical care, and CBP rescues 4,300 people per year who are in danger and distress. The efforts to address this humanitarian catastrophe draw resources away from enforcing our Nation’s immigration laws and protecting the border, and place border security personnel at increased risk.
As troubling as these statistics are, they reveal only part of the reality. The situation at the southern border is rapidly deteriorating because of who is arriving and how they are arriving. For many years, the majority of individuals who arrived illegally were single adults from Mexico. Under our existing laws, we could detain and quickly remove most of these aliens. More recently, however, illegal migrants have organized into caravans that include large numbers of families and unaccompanied children from Central American countries. Last year, for example, a record number of families crossed the border illegally. If the current trend holds, the number of families crossing in fiscal year 2019 will greatly surpass last year’s record total. Criminal organizations are taking advantage of these large flows of families and unaccompanied minors to conduct dangerous illegal activity, including human trafficking, drug smuggling, and brutal killings.
Under current laws, court decisions, and resource constraints, the Government cannot detain families or undocumented alien children from Central American countries in significant numbers or quickly deport them. Instead, the Government is forced to release many of them into the interior of the United States, pending lengthy judicial proceedings. Although many fail ever to establish any legal right to remain in this country, they stay nonetheless.
This situation on our border cannot be described as anything other than a national emergency, and our Armed Forces are needed to help confront it.
My highest obligation as President is to protect the Nation and its people. Every day, the crisis on our border is deepening, and with new surges of migrants expected in the coming months, we are straining our border enforcement personnel and resources to the breaking point.
H.J. Res. 46 ignores these realities. It is a dangerous resolution that would undermine United States sovereignty and threaten the lives and safety of countless Americans. It is, therefore, my duty to return it to the House of Representatives without my approval.
DONALD J. TRUMP
THE WHITE HOUSE,
March 15, 2019.
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Comments
Trump just called out a slough of Republicans in congress. It will be interesting to see how many stand with the US Chamber of Commerce vice the US President.
I want to see the votes in the Senate. I already know that McMorris-Rodgers is voting with the progs.
Maybe he did that, but I saw this, first:
“I’d like to thank all of the Great Republican Senators who bravely voted for Strong Border Security and the WALL. This will help stop Crime, Human Trafficking, and Drugs entering our Country. Watch, when you get back to your State, they will LOVE you more than ever before!”
https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/b1huqg/id_like_to_thank_all_of_the_great_republican/
As far as I can tell, other people called the jerks* out by name:
http://archive.is/KzVjK
*Calling an emergency declaration that is plainly authorized by the Constitution and by Congressional Statute a some sort of executive overreach is thoughtless and stupid thing to do, well deserving the epithet. Every last one of them, except for Rand Paul, knows better.
It’s simply too terrible to consider what things would be like if Donald Trump was not elected president in 2016.
It’s like a bad dream.
We lost a Dozen.
I am surprised we lost more than the three we were sure of.
I knew my Murkowski was going to try to stop it as she is a Democrat in Republican clothing… and there ain’t much I can do but apologize.
First thing many of the Colonials did was run to the British way back when.
Same crap, new revolution.
This one, he fights.
Mueller has failed the country. The media has failed the country. The rinos/never Trumpers are the lefties’ last resort. We can only hope that there are enough folks in Congress willing to do the will of the people.
Interesting to see AG Barr come out so strongly. I hadn’t seen that reported on elsewhere yet. I certainly viewed his action as well grounded in the law, though Congress chose to ignore that.
If Trump really can do something to solve the border crisis with this kind of chump change, that will be its own indictment of Congress’ failings.
I sense a list of Republican Senators who will be primaried next election. Unfortunately, one of them is mine.
Actually no — it is fortunate, that your representative has revealed his true colors now, and you can prepare for his removal in plenty of time.
We must remove these clowns, who do not support a strong and safe America, and who equivocate on the outrageous issue of illegal immigration.
I am looking forward to seeing Trump prevail. How entrenched are the 12 republicans who voted for this. Can we organize to take any of them out?
Let’s start with a list of targets.
• Rand Paul – KY
• Lisa Murkowski – AK
• Susan Collins – ME
• Mike Lee – UT
• Lamar Alexander – TN
• Mitt Romney – UT
• Pat Toomey – PA
• Rob Portman – OH
• Marco Rubio – FL
• Roy Blunt – MO
• Jerry Moran – KS
• Roger Wicker – MS
Rand Paul is a constant maverick, but at least his reasoning follows some sort of principals.
Murkowski keeps getting elected in Alaska, although most Alaskans don’t seem to agree with her liberal views. When will they finally get rid of her?
Mitt Romney is increasingly revealing his status as a scoundrel, who favors nothing, and opposes everything that Trump pursues.
Little Marco just can’t accept that he got trashed in the 2015 primaries, and keeps looking for an “issue”.
Susan Collins somehow keeps getting elected, despite her wobbly voice and equally wobbly principles.
The rest of the wobblers are unremarkable, just trying to establish some sort of idiotic principle.
Republicans believe in nothing, and willingly hire on to oppose anything, that might someday result it discovery of a principle to guide them.
I vote against Rob Portman every time, to no avail. Senators get so entrenched in DC and receive so much lobbyist money it’s pretty much impossible to vote them out. Really need to go back to the state legislatures appointing senators, preferably with a one-term limit.
Rubio shows again and again why he should never be the choice of the Republican party to be President. Rand Paul is just channeling his inner McCain, I never saw the appeal he seems to enjoy with some people. He has rarely exemplified what I stand for, he should just be an independent like good ol’ Bernie.
I still would have rather had Mittens for President than Obama, but not by much. He would have been a better choice, but he and McCain were tough to vote for, rather than being a means used to vote against. With those two, in hind sight, I can see the true powers that be are those who helped put them in so Obama could rule for 8 long years. They couldn’t have been the serious choice of the people.
Collins has always disappointed. Murkowski is pathetic, worse than a RINO, only slightly better than a McCain in that she is largely ignored.
Since this legislation DID NOT seek to modify the National Emergencies Act or other authorizing legislation granting the President the authority to do exactly what he has done, THE LEGISLATION AT HAND MERELY SOUGHT TO SUBSTITUTE THE OPINION OF THE DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS ABOUT THE BORDER EMERGENCY FOR THE PRESIDENTS OPINION. BUT the national emergencies act gives the PRESIDENT and NOT CONGRESS the sole authority to determine when a national emergency exists under the National Emergencies Act.
So this legislation is merely the expression of a democrat party POLITICAL opinion and says NOTHING about the propriety or constitutionality of the Presidents declaration.
Attorney General William Barr gave the emergency declaration a very strong defense today as to both its lawful authority and constitutionality.
That is not true. The very same Act gives Congress the authority to override such a determination. There’s nothing wrong with congressmen who disagree with the president’s determination seeking to exercise that authority.
Unfortunately for them, there was no constitutional way for the congress that originally passed this act to structure it so that a declaration could be overridden by a simple majority in each house without being subject to veto. The Presentment clause requires that any vote which requires passage in both houses must be presented to the president, and there’s no good way around that.
Mike Lee has long ago shown himself to be a giant turn almost as bad as Romney. Many of the idiots on the list above along with McConnell are the ones who refused to support doing away with the filibuster rule so the Senate along with the republican house could ACTUALLY GET SOME GOOD THINGS DONE AND SUPPORT THE TRUMP AGENDA.
The democrats of course will have no hesitation in doing away with the filibuster rule the next time they control both house of congress and the presidency.
Then why didn’t they do it the last time they had the numbers, and the Reps were making their lives difficult?
Voted, not caucused. There’s a big difference.