Trump Pulls Out First Presidential Veto To Throw Out Border Emergency Rebuff
Wasting no time in responding to the Senate’s action Thursday to give final congressional approval to a resolution intended to block President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration, Trump vetoed the measure Friday.
“Consistent with the law and the legislative process designed by our Founders, today I am vetoing this resolution. Congress has the freedom to pass this resolution, and I have the duty to veto it,” Trump said, according to a White House transcript.
The veto is the first of his presidency.
“I have to, in particular, thank the Republican — strong, wonderful people — the Republican senators that were on our side and on the side of border security and on the side of doing what they have to to keep our nation safe,” Trump said.
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 15, 2019
He later added that the vote for the resolution was “a vote against reality.”
Trump’s declaration was made under the National Emergency Act, which allows Congress to take action to block a presidential declaration.
Based on the House and Senate votes to pass the resolution, the declaration’s opponents do not have the votes to override the veto. On Thursday, 12 GOP senators joined with Democrats to oppose the emergency declaration.
Although Congress failed to stop the declaration, it will face court challenges.
Trump has said is necessary to spur construction of the border wall along the southern border between the United States and Mexico.
In a statement accompanying his veto, he said that “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, (the Border Patrol) 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,” the president said.
Trump noted that the border allows huge quantities of illegal drugs into the nation, as well as individuals who commit crimes in the U.S.
“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,” he said.
The president said border security “is rapidly deteriorating because of who is arriving and how they are arriving.”
Noting that at one time most illegal immigrants were single adults from Mexico, Trump said that has changed.
“More recently, however, illegal migrants have organized into caravans that include large numbers of families and unaccompanied children from Central American countries,” he said. “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.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 15, 2019
Trump said that under current immigration laws, “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.”
In short, the president wrote, “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.”
“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,” he said.
The resolution “ignores these realities,” the president said. “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.”
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