President Trump will address the nation tonight at 9 p.m. to discuss the crisis at the border, and perhaps discuss a forthcoming declaration of a national emergency that would enable the administration to build a border wall without help from Congress.
Open-borders Democrats have refused to fund a wall to stop the illegal-alien invasion that shows no signs of abating, which led to a government shutdown now in its 17th day.
The president says inaction must end, and has, for weeks, threatened an emergency declaration.
And, undoubtedly, the radical Left is preparing lawsuits to declare any presidential action to defend the country either unlawful, unconstitutional, or both.
Address at 9
“I am pleased to inform you that I will Address the Nation on the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border. Tuesday night at 9:00 P.M. Eastern,” the president tweeted yesterday.
Trump will likely reiterate what he has said since he began campaigning for president: It’s time to close the border with Mexico to the tens of thousands of illegals who cross every year.
Open-borders leftists in Congress, of course, don’t see the illegal-alien invasion as a crisis. To them, it’s an opportunity to import future Democratic voters who will change the demographic balance of the country and cement leftist control for the foreseeable future. Thus, they oppose building a wall, and won’t give Trump the money he needs for it.
That’s why the government shut down, and Trump will probably reiterate that point tonight.
Vice President Mike Pence and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen met with intransigent Democrats yesterday to resolve the impasse. They wasted their time.
And hoping to convince Americans that open borders are a good thing, that tens of thousands of illiterate, unhealthy, and unemployed migrants crossing the border to file bogus asylum claims helps the country, Democrats demanded, and received, equal time on the networks.
“Now that the television networks have decided to air the President’s address, which if his past statements are any indication will be full of malice and misinformation, Democrats must immediately be given equal airtime,” the leftist pair wrote.
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Yes, It’s a Crisis at the Border
Opinions are mixed about the president’s power to declare a national emergency and build the wall with money Congress OK’d for other purposes.
“The fundamental principle is that no president or official may spend funds that were not appropriated for that purpose,” legal scholar William Banks told the Times. “But I think that it’s possible that the president could declare a national emergency and then rely on authority Congress has historically granted for exigencies to free up some funds to support constructing a barrier along the border.”
As well, the Times reported, even if the president faces a court challenge, “the administration might argue that Congress has effectively preapproved a wall-like barrier under other laws, including one that authorizes the military to construct border ‘fences’ blocking drug-smuggling corridors, and another, the Secure Fence Act of 2006, that empowers the Department of Homeland Security to build ‘physical infrastructure enhancements’ along the border.”
The president’s powers and leftist lawfare regardless, the bigger question is whether illegal immigration is a crisis.
The open-borders Left in Congress and the media say no, for obvious reasons. They say the number has decreased “far down from its peak of nearly two decades ago,” as the Times put it. And technically, the Times is right that “the recent caravans from Central America primarily consist of migrants who are not trying to sneak across the border but instead are presenting themselves to border officials and requesting asylum.”
But regardless of what the numbers were two decades ago or what “recent caravans” include now, illegals still flood the country at unimaginable rates. In the first two months of fiscal 2019, as the data to which the Times points show, border agents collared 102,857 illegals crossing the Southwest border between legal ports of entry.
In fiscal 2018, Immigration and Customs Enforcement collared 158,581 illegals, 66 percent of whom had criminal convictions, 21 percent had pending criminal charges, and three percent had previously issued final orders.
Removals increased about 13 percent to 256,086. Fifty-seven percent were convicted criminals, and 5,914 of the removed illegal aliens were either known or suspected gang members or terrorists.
So ICE fights a never-ending battle against trying to deport illegal-alien criminals.
As well, those migrants so beloved of the Left have twice rushed the border, using women and children as human shields, and sanctuary states and localities are protecting illegal-alien criminals who murder cops and American citizens.
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