California Attorney General Vows To Sue If Trump Uses Emergency Powers To Build Wall
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra says he plans to sue the Trump administration the moment the president declares a national emergency to free up funds for a border wall.
Becerra was responding in Spanish to President Trump's State of the Union address to Congress. But he released his response before Trump even delivered the first words of his remarks, anticipating a speech in which the president doubled down on his demand for the construction of a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.
"The idea of declaring a state of emergency on the border that does not exist, to justify robbing funds that belong to the victims of fires, floods and hurricanes, to pay for the wall is not only immoral, it is illegal," Becerra said in Spanish, alluding to reports that Trump may tap into disaster relief funds to construct the wall.
The president did not mention using emergency powers to build the wall in his speech, but has suggested to reporters that he might consider using those powers if Congress doesn't agree to authorize its funding in a spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security. Declaring a national emergency would allow the president to divert funding set aside for other purposes for the wall.
In his speech, Trump painted an urgent crisis at the border, speaking of "large, organized caravans" at the southern border, but most of the migrants waiting at the border have obtained a humanitarian visa from. Eddie Trevino, a Cameron County Judge in Brownsville, recently told reporters: "There is no Central American invasion. This is a manufactured crisis."
