Trump's declaring a national emergency to get his wall. He's forcing a constitutional crisis.

Analysis: The president made his move. Now, the courts will decide who really has the power over the wall.

— President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the El Paso County Coliseum on Feb. 11, 2019 in El Paso, Texas.Joe Raedle / Getty Images file

Feb. 15, 2019, 7:30 AM EST / Updated Feb. 15, 2019, 10:27 AM EST
By Jonathan Allen

WASHINGTON — Congress knew President Donald Trump thought there was a border crisis when it voted to curb his wall Thursday.

In the arcane language of House and Senate appropriators, endorsed by veto-proof majorities in both chambers, lawmakers said Trump could have no more than $1.375 billion to build 55 new miles of steel fencing. They specifically cited the risk to law enforcement in banning him from constructing solid walls.

It was a resounding and explicit rejection of the idea that there is a national emergency requiring billions of dollars to build a border wall. And that judgment was rendered at a time when Trump has been making a very public case — in speeches, interviews and tweets — that there is a "humanitarian and security crisis" and after he shut down the government for 35 days to make his point.

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Pentagon Deploying 3,750 Troops To Southern Border

February 4, 2019 • 7:04 AM ET


Members of the U.S. military install multiple tiers of concertina wire along the banks of the Rio Grande near the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge at the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas, in November.
Eric Gay/AP

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Arizona border city threatens to sue Trump administration for covering its 20-foot border wall in 'lethal' razor wire
Feb. 7, 2019, 6:44 AM



A school bus driving past the concertina-wire-covered fence in Nogales, Arizona, which sits on the border with Mexico, on Monday.
Jonathan Clark/Nogales International via AP

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