OPINION

Sen. Pat Toomey: Why I don’t support Trump’s national emergency declaration | Opinion

Updated: March 14, 2019 - 4:27 PM

Pat Toomey, For the Inquirer

Sen. Pat Toomey: Why I don’t support Trump’s national emergency declaration | Opinion

Forgot the sauce

“Illegal immigration is wrong, plain and simple. Until the American people are convinced that we will stop future flows of illegal immigration, we will make no progress on dealing with the millions of illegal immigrants who are here now, and on rationalizing our system of legal immigration. That’s plain and simple and unavoidable.”

Those words were not spoken by President Donald Trump or any Republican. They’re from Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer in 2009 — and he was right.

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Since then, our government has failed to secure the border. Large numbers of individuals, including some who are violent criminals, cross the southern border illegally. On the dangerous journey to the U.S., many migrant women and children are exploited by human traffickers. And deadly illicit drugs, like fentanyl, are smuggled over the border through and between ports of entry, coming into our towns and ruining lives.

For these reasons, President Trump has sensibly made securing the southern border a central goal of his presidency. Last year, I voted for $25 billion in border security funding because I support him in these efforts to keep Americans safe, including his recent request for $5.7 billion to build 234 miles of physical barriers at the 10 most critical locations as determined by the border patrol.

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Unfortunately, when the president’s request came before Congress, Sen. Schumer and his Democratic colleagues changed their position on border security. After having voted for up to $24 billion in funding for physical barriers in 2018, this year, Democrats agreed to fund only a small fraction of the amount needed to build physical barriers.

The president’s most recent predecessors — two Republicans and two Democrats — built physical barriers at the border. None faced the obstruction that President Trump has. This unreasonable opposition led the president to declare a national emergency that reallocates funds from future military construction projects toward construction of physical barriers.

The president has, under existing law, adequate discretion over funding sources that would enable him to secure $5.7 billion without having to invoke emergency powers. Nevertheless, the president decided to declare a national emergency, which gives him virtually unlimited access to funds that Congress specifically dedicated for military construction projects.

I share the president’s frustration and goal of securing the border, but I have serious concerns about his national emergency declaration. Well before the president declared an emergency, I made clear that such a declaration was ill-advised.

https://www.philly.com/opinion/commentary/pat-toomey-trump-national-emergency-border-wall-immigration-senate-20190314.html