What makes the border security crisis now a national emergency?
Former Trump administration EPA official Mandy Gunasekara says President Trump wants to build the wall to keep America safe.
Liberal activists are planning nationwide protests on Monday against President Trump’s national emergency declaration on the southern border, embracing the hashtag #FakeNationalEmergency.
The demonstrations are being organized for Presidents Day, the federal holiday on Monday that some workers have off. Many have been scheduled to take place at noon.
TRUMP DECLARES EMERGENCY ON BORDER, EYES $8B FOR WALL
“We're mobilizing rapid-response events on Presidents Day—Monday, 2/18—against Trump's fake crisis and racist deportation force and to stand with immigrant, Muslim, and Black and brown communities to stop Trump's dangerous and illegal power grab,” the liberal MoveOn.org posted on its website.
Some local protests have been listed on the website Rallylist.com.
President Trump said Friday he is declaring a national emergency on the southern border, tapping into executive powers in a bid to divert billions toward construction of his long-promised wall.
“We’re going to confront the national security crisis on our southern border … one way or the other, we have to do it,” Trump said in the Rose Garden.
TRUMP'S BORDER WALL JOINS 31 OTHER NATIONAL EMERGENCIES CURRENTLY IN EFFECT
The move is expected to face a swift and forceful legal challenge that could stall the attempt in the courts for the near future. But the declaration and other money-moving plans allow Trump to continue to fight for border wall construction while also averting another partial government shutdown -- which would have been triggered at midnight on Friday absent the new funding package.
Trump, in the Rose Garden, declared once again that "walls work" as he confirmed the emergency declaration would accompany the spending legislation.
"We’re talking about an invasion of our country," Trump said.
And in an almost-casual tone, the president predicted a legal fight that will wind up before the Supreme Court.
"We will have a national emergency, and we will then be sued," Trump said, adding that the federal appeals courts could well rule against his administration. "Then we’ll end up in the Supreme Court, and hopefully we’ll get a fair shake, and we’ll win at the Supreme Court -- just like the [travel] ban.”
A senior administration official told Fox News that the White House plans to move $8 billion in currently appropriated or available funds toward construction of the wall. Of that, $3 billion could be diverted with help from the emergency declaration.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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