Just Security has published a February 25, 2019 Joint Declaration signed by 58 former U.S. government national security officials who refute in detail President Trump’s declaration of a “national emergency” on the southern border.
President Trump is using the claimed national emergency as grounds to divert funding appropriated by Congress for military construction and drug interdiction efforts to construction of segments of border wall, after Congress did not grant him the funding he sought for that purpose in the recent February 15, 2019 budget deal.
The bipartisan signatories who have served Republican and Democrat presidents include Madeline Albright, John Brennan, Chuck Hagel, John Kerry, Thomas Pickering, Strobe Talbot, and 52 others.
The former security experts’ dismay at the declaration of the “national emergency” was echoed by 26 former GOP senators and representatives. In a February 25, 2019 letter, they urged Republicans currently serving in Congress to pass a joint resolution terminating the President’s “national emergency” declaration, in order to preserve the Constitutional separation of powers. Former Senator Olympia Snowe, and former Representatives Jock McKernan and David Emery of Maine were among the letter’s signatories.
As MeBIC has noted previously, we concur that there is no national emergency on the southern border. The President’s declaration both sets a dangerous precedent and also ignores the very real need for funds to add asylum officers and immigration judges so that asylum seekers requesting protection at our southern border can receive the due process that both U.S. and international law demand.