National border emergency declared

By MCKENZIE STOUTE

After lots of speculation, President Trump declared a national emergency over border security on Friday.

This decision came after Congress wouldn’t give the president the $5.7 billion he asked for to build the wall, that he previously stated that Mexico was going to pay. This resulted in a 35-day government shutdown, the longest U.S government shutdown in history. In order to avoid another shutdown President Trump signed a bipartisan spending bill that allocated him $1.38 billion for border barriers. This falls more than $4 billion short of what Trump sought.

The president has received backlash for this, with many Democrats saying it is an unconstitutional abuse of his authority.

“We’re talking about an invasion of our country,” President Trump stated in defense of his actions. Trump plans to draw $6.7 billion from the military, $2.5 billion from counter-narcotics programs and $600 million from the Treasury Department.

Yet, this is the closest that President Trump has gotten to fulfilling his promise of building a wall along Mexico’s border.