WASHINGTON – Donald Trump signed the first veto of his presidency Friday,overriding congressional opposition to secure emergency funds to build morewalls 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 whensenators, including fellow Republicans, voted to terminate his declarationof an emergency on the Mexican border.
Surrounded by law enforcement officials, senior aides and people who havelost loved ones to cross-border crime, Trump said the veto reaffirming hispower to get the funds without Congress was to “defend the safety of allAmericans.”
“The mass incursion of illegal aliens… has to end,” he said. “People hatethe word ‘invasion’ but that’s what it is… Our immigration system isstretched beyond the breaking point.”
Trump’s emergency declaration allows him to secure funding for constructionof border walls after he failed to get authorization from Congress.
Opponents, who accuse Trump of executive overreach and overhyping theproblem on the border, could now use court challenges to halt the emergencymeasure.
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives anda leader in the fight to prevent Trump’s wall plans, called Trump’s actiona “lawless power grab.”
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“The president has chosen to continue to defy the Constitution, theCongress 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 hispresidency and says it will remain at the center of the agenda in his 2020reelection bid.
Although there has been a surge in arrival of families and children at theborder, overall apprehensions at the frontier are down substantially from adecade or more ago.
Most Republicans support Trump’s position that the border is out ofcontrol. However, there were defections in Thursday’s Senate vote byRepublican senators angered at what they see as the president’s improperseizing of power over the government purse strings — a role reserved forthe legislature. – APP/AFP
