WASHINGTON, March 16, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Donald Trump signed the first veto
of his presidency 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 March 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 center 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 substanfially 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.