Context: After not getting any funding for the wall, Trump declared a national emergency. This allowed him to use his emergency powers to allocate some funding to build the wall.
After declaring a national emergency to build the wall, Trump has been sued by many individuals and groups. The most notable examples include California (and 16 other states), Center of Biological Diversity, and the Sierra Club, who all sued Trump for similar reasons (mainly abuse of power and economic/environmental challenges from building the wall).
Many presidents have used emergency powers in the past, but usually hasn't been this much backlash. Furthermore, this wall could severely affect our relationship with Mexico, which could be economically harmful to us.
Q1: Do you think Trump should build the wall, despite no funding?
Q2: What do you think about using the National Emergency Act to push one's agenda?
Q3: What are some potential successes/problems with building a wall?
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The wall that Trump plans to build should not be built at all, for any reason in my opinion. I don't believe that the National Emergency Act should have been used, because there are other pressing issues that seem more urgent. With Flint still not providing full clean drinking water, it is creating mass struggles for residents everyday. So, calling a national emergency for this situation should not be the top priority.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I especially liked about reading this post was the fact that there are several groups that have considered the environmental impact as well as the economic impacts. I feel like the polarization in our country has lead people to fight about the wall itself instead of trying to come to a resolution or find a solution to a difficult and convoluted situation. Not many people in the media have even referenced the environmental impact, which is a huge aspect considering that a huge physical barrier will divide the ecosystem, which could have effects on the wildlife and the biodiversity due to the habitat fragmentation. In regards to the national emergency usage, I think that Trump should not have called this national emergency because it is a huge abuse of power. If our nation's representatives and the people don't agree to a specific resolution (like the wall), then I think it is unconstitutional to simply move funding without general approval. The National Emergency Act should be used to help save lives in a dire situation when time is of the essence, but the wall is not by any definition a dire situation in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThe building of a border wall is unneccesary because of many reasons. The building of a wall will encourage people to find new and potentially dangerous ways of crossing the border, which could put people's lives at risk. For example, 47 Africans died while trying to cross into Spain in a wooden boat. Furthermore, the wall is not a worthy investment when issues such as expensive medical care and a slowly crumbling SSA are present in the US. Some may use Israel's southern border fence as an example to show that walls are efficient. Although this is true (Israel's fence cut illegal immigration by 99%), there was more loss than benefits. Other than the obvious and large price tag of a wall, the wall must be manned by guards with the use of technology since the US-Mexico border is mountanious and very remote, unlike Israel's open and arid terrain. Due to terrain and the lack of guards, illegal immigration will still be a large issue unless there is an increased investment into border security technology and more guards. All of this makes the idea of a wall much more expensive after a deeper look. Furthermore, the use of a national secutiry to advance a poltiical promise is childish. There are more than 30 national emergencies still in effect, such as President Obama's H1N1 outbreak emergency. The "national emergency" of the need to build a wall is an abuse of power by President Trump. He is trying to get around an uncooperative Congress and the majority of the nation. With the use of the NEA, President Trump has over 136 powers, which only 13 require a Congressional declaration. The NEA gives power to presidents such as Trump who try to advance projects without majority approval by going around the need to go through Congress. Overall, the total cost of building a wall is too high and the use on the NEA to get around the majority opinion is childish and doesn't follow the parameters set by the NEA that the nation is "threatened by crisis, exigency, or emergency circumstances."
ReplyDeleteUsing national emergency to advance one's political agenda is extremely abusive, unnecessary and ridiculous. There are many legitimate reasons for declaring national emergency, and our current immigration and refugee situation is not one of them. Instead of compromising, coming up with new ideas and problem solving, our Congress and President have resulted to polarized debate and gridlock and are selfishly placing other important issues below immigration instead. The wall is a complete waste of time, resources, and although cheap in the scale of our national debt, absolutely unnecessary- all while adding immense environmental consequences as well.
ReplyDeleteTrump's persistence to build the wall, to the point of calling a National Emergency, is extremely immature. His stubbornness to build a wall, despite obvious opposition from Congress, has led him to become more ignorant than before. He is seemingly blind to the results that have occurred from him abusing his power and pushing unjust actions previously in the 35 day government shutdown. In past presidencies, national emergencies have been used to ban human testing, authorize military construction, or enlist members into duty. In general, the National Emergency Act are meant to be used to address severe economic, social, or political issues. Funding the wall does not fit into any of these categories. Rather, Trump's wall is, as Brooke well said, "a complete waste of time, resources, and... absolutely unnecessary." Therefore, not only does the wall itself have its own flaws, but its purpose also leaves many holes unfilled. Trump's stance on stopping illegal immigration is a childish and severely incomplete one.
ReplyDeleteI don't really understand the point of calling this a national emergency. He said himself that he didn't need to do it which should be enough to say it isn't a national emergency. To my knowledge, though I could be very very wrong, I don't think a president has ever used the national emergency for his own personal agenda to this degree and to me, that is really selfish. The funds for a National Emergency are supposed to be used if the entire nation is in trouble. It shouldn't matter whether you are Democratic or Republican, you should be able to agree that there is a problem. Also, like Trump himself said, he is just going to have to go to Court and all of this halts the process of the wall anything. This legal battle will take a lot time which he doesn't really have time for. Congress very clearly has the power of the purse as stated by the Constitution, so in my mind it is hard to get around that. Even thinking about a partisan court. The election is coming up next year and he wants to campaign. If he doesn't succeed, that is really bad for his campaign. In my mind, I am hoping that he doesn't get elected for a second term which would make this drawn out effort for the wall pointless. This National Emergency to me is just a waste of time.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Trump should build the wall for the simple reason that he doesn't have congressional approval. This is a democracy, and the people have spoken: they don't want a wall. National emergencies should never be declared for partisan reasons. They are only to be used when a legitimate national emergency is in progress, and swift action by the president is necessary, which is exceedingly rare. This case clearly isn't a national emergency, because there is zero need for swift or decisive action, and illegal immigration isn't a serious issue either that can be solved by a wall. A wall would be incredibly expensive, both in terms of logistics and materials. It would have extremely limited benefits, because drug smugglers will always find new methods to move product, either by going over, under, through or along the coast. Besides, a large quantity of "illegal immigrants" are either seeking asylum, in which case their situation would be the same wall or not, or they are immigrants overstaying the limits on their green cards or work visas.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the comments made above in that this is a democracy and it would be unconstitutional to just demand the wall to be built without congress approval. Not only so, forcefully building the wall without enough funding would lead america to be more in debt than we already are in, which in the long run can impact american society as a whole. This decision also doesn't require the use of National Emergency since it isn't something that is urgent or needs to be solved immediately because such decision require much thought due to how big of an impact the wall will cause not only economically but socially as well.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with Trump’s actions whatsoever because of how unreasonable he is being with his goal. Trump should respect and understand that if Congress doesn’t want to fund the wall, maybe he should reconsider his approach. As a president, he should be open to compromise and finding solutions that respect everyone’s wishes and views without being too selfish or close minded. Trump, by declaring a national emergency to get funding for the wall was a very childish and immature move on his part. This is in no way considered a national emergency since there is no urgency that is driving the construction of this wall. Since Trump is only using the results of the National Emergency Act to push his own agenda, despite having reasonable and natural opposition pop up from Congress and the citizens of this country, I do not support this at all. I think that overall the costs of building this border wall will outweigh the potential benefits, so it should not be built without at least having some changes and reconsiderations happen. I also agree with all the previous comments about the importance of democracy and limits on the president’s power because if a president can get away with a move like this, they can basically change their title to dictator instead of president.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with Trump’s actions whatsoever because of how unreasonable he is being with his goal. Trump should respect and understand that if Congress doesn’t want to fund the wall, maybe he should reconsider his approach. As a president, he should be open to compromise and finding solutions that respect everyone’s wishes and views without being too selfish or close minded. Trump, by declaring a national emergency to get funding for the wall was a very childish and immature move on his part. This is in no way considered a national emergency since there is no urgency that is driving the construction of this wall. Since Trump is only using the results of the National Emergency Act to push his own agenda, despite having reasonable and natural opposition pop up from Congress and the citizens of this country, I do not support this at all. I think that overall the costs of building this border wall will outweigh the potential benefits, so it should not be built without at least having some changes and reconsiderations happen. I also agree with all the previous comments about the importance of democracy and limits on the president’s power because if a president can get away with a move like this, they can basically change their title to dictator instead of president.
ReplyDeleteI think it is unfair for Trump to declare a national emergency regarding the border wall he is trying to build. National emergencies are usually outbreaks of deadly viruses or a terrorist attack - never about a wall. Trump created a panic for no reason which is unfair and frankly unethical. He wants to spend millions of dollars on a wall that is not guaranteed to provide "security" and prevent the influx of drugs into the US, but this is simply not reasonable since a lot of drugs are coming from Asia or Southern America. Instead, Trump is unwilling to back down and accept the compromises that the Democrats are offering just to keep his campaign promise that got him the votes of the nativist/anti-immigration Americans.
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