Mexico border wall: 16 US states sue over emergency declaration

Washington, February 19: A coalition of 16 US states led by California is suing President Donald Trump's administration over his decision to declare an emergency to raise funds for a Mexican border wall.

 

The lawsuit was filed in the court for the Northern District of California. It comes days after Trump invoked emergency powers to bypass Congress and secure funding for the project - a key campaign pledge.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said they were taking President Trump to court to block his misuse of presidential power.

The lawsuit filed yesterday seeks a preliminary injunction that would stop Trump from acting on his emergency declaration while a legal battle takes place in the courts, a newspaper reported.

Trump announced the plan after Congress refused to fund for the wall.

Critics, including several senators from Trump's Republican party, have warned that he has opened the door for future presidents to call on the act whenever they fail to get their way with Congress.

Should the states prevail, the case could work its way up to the Supreme Court, setting up a precedent-setting showdown on the separation of powers.

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Virginia are party to the complaint seeking an injunction.

The states "bring this action to protect their residents, natural resources, and economic interests from President Donald J. Trump's flagrant disregard of fundamental separation of powers principles engrained in the United States Constitution," the complaint said.

It added that Trump had veered the country toward a "constitutional crisis of his own making."

"Congress has repeatedly rebuffed the president's insistence to fund a border wall, recently resulting in a record 35-day partial government shutdown over the border wall dispute," it said.

"After the government reopened, Congress approved, and the president signed into law, a $1.375 billion appropriation for fencing along the southern border, but Congress made clear that funding not be used to build President Trump's proposed border wall."