MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Mexican border wall: Trump “proudly” signs veto to secure emergency funds
Surrounded by law enforcement officials, senior aides and people who have lost loved ones to cross-border crime, Trump signed the veto Donald Trump signed the first veto of his presidency on Friday, overriding congressional opposition to secure emergency funds to build more walls on the US-Mexico border. Trump declared in the Oval Office that he was “proud” to sign the veto.
It came after he suffered an embarrassing defeat on Thursday when senators, including fellow Republicans, voted to terminate his declaration of an emergency on the Mexican border.
Surrounded by law enforcement officials, senior aides and people who have lost loved ones to cross-border crime, Trump said the veto reaffirming his power to get the funds without Congress was to “defend the safety of all Americans.”
“The mass incursion of illegal aliens ... has to end,” he said. “People hate the word 'invasion' but that's what it is... Our immigration system is stretched beyond the breaking point.”
Trump's emergency declaration allows him to secure funding for construction of border walls after he failed to get authorization from Congress.
Opponents, who accuse Trump of executive overreach and overhyping the problem on the border, could now use court challenges to halt the emergency measure.
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives and a leader in the fight to prevent Trump's wall plans, called Trump's action a “lawless power grab.”
“The president has chosen to continue to defy the Constitution, the Congress and the will of the American people,” she said in a statement.
An attempt to override the veto will be held on Mar 26, she announced. However, this is very unlikely to pass as a two-thirds majority is required.
Trump has made border security an over-arching domestic issue in his presidency and says it will remain at the centre of the agenda in his 2020 reelection bid.
Although there has been a surge in arrival of families and children at the border, overall apprehensions at the boundary are down substantially from a decade or more ago.
Most Republicans support Trump's position that the border is out of control. However, there were defections in Thursday's Senate vote by Republican senators angered at what they see as Trump's improper seizing of power over the government purse strings - a role reserved for the legislature.
Top Comments
Disclaimer & comment rules-
-
-
Read all commentsREF: “Mexican border wall”:
Mar 16th, 2019 - 10:47 am 0It's heartwarmingly satisfactory to know that at least the U.S. isn't alone, in electing an A-Hole for a president!
O:
Mar 16th, 2019 - 04:19 pm 0Is HRC also an A-Hole to you? Yes or no?
Our governments have not been able to control our porous southern border for decades. They have been useless at this, for decades. Are the American people who are tired of this all A-Holes?
In Brazil, which non-A-hole, would you have preferred to have been elected in place of Bolsonaro? Name him or her.
Will all Brazilians be of one unanimous mind that this preferred candidate of yours is for sure “not” an A-Hole?
Here in the U.S., it is one's political ideology that determines who we label as an A-Hole. Are you doing this too?
Your pre-dominant mindset is that “all” politicians are automatically A-Holes. I agree with this. HRC is a politician thru and thru. A clearly pure shitbag. Trump was not a politician at the time he was campaigning.
What do you have to say about the majority of Americans whose choice for POTUS was HRC, a pure shitbag? Who then, oblivious to the total flaws in their own twisted preference and vote, in a microsecond start castigating the people who voted for a person who wasn't a shitbag politician? They voted for an animal like HRC and then turn around and call the ones who did not do this twisted. As you are now.
In such a case as Donald Trump, are you obliged to side with corrupt politicians?
Name a person in the U.S. who you think would have been a good non-A-hole president for the U.S. people?
@Bushpilot
Mar 16th, 2019 - 09:16 pm 0I'm sure :o)) will give you a GREAT answer, but I wanted to say that your government could have controlled the border any time. They just didn't want to. Business owners love illegal immigrants, they work for lower pay and can't complain about shit conditions. And your politicians work for who has the money, not the voters. Most of them are A-holes, and I'm afraid if you elect an A-hole non-politician, they immediately become an A-hole politician.
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!