Spinning Trump’s National Emergency Declaration
Both sides are spinning the facts in response to President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency on the Southwest border:
- As justification for the border wall, White House adviser Stephen Miller cited an increase in border crossers who “can’t be turned around” and sent home immediately, such as those seeking asylum. But a wall wouldn’t deter many of those migrants, who, according to government reports, make no attempt to evade detection.
- California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, claimed that President Barack Obama “didn’t change laws” when using his executive authority to create the DAPA and DACA programs. But a federal judge ruled that DAPA was “in effect, a new law.”
- Miller exaggerated the growth of the illegal immigration population under President George W. Bush, claiming it had doubled. It went up by 28 percent, according to Department of Homeland Security estimates. Miller said Bush failed to “[defend] this country on the southern border,” but Bush added hundreds of miles of border barrier and doubled the number of border patrol agents.
- Republican Rep. Jim Jordan took Democrats’ words out of context, claiming Hillary Clinton said “we need a borderless hemisphere,” when she was talking about a “hemispheric common market” for energy. Jordan claimed Stacey Abrams said “noncitizens should be able to vote.” Abrams said she “wouldn’t oppose” allowing noncitizens to vote in some local elections — not state and federal elections.
On Feb. 15, Trump declared the national emergency, which the White House said would enable the use of $8 billion for the construction of a border wall, with most of the money coming from Department of Defense budgets.
Miller’s Spin on the Wall
In making the administration’s case for a border wall, White House
