After declaring walls “immoral,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is taking her open borders rhetoric to the next level.
Speaking at a press conference Monday, Pelosi said that House Democrats will pass a resolution to “terminate” President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration to build the wall, arguing that it was the “patriotic” thing to do. “This is about the Constitution of the United States. It’s not about politics, it’s not about partisanship. It’s about patriotism,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi vows to terminate Trump’s emergency
Pelosi said that it was the duty of Congress to pass House Democrats’ resolution to “defend our democracy” against Trump’s emergency declaration “power grab,” which she said undermines the checks and balances put into place by the Founders. “To defend our democracy, the House will pass Congressman Castro’s (D-TX) privileged resolution to terminate the emergency declaration tomorrow,” Pelosi said Monday.
Pelosi, who has railed against borders and national sovereignty throughout her months-long border battle with Trump, described the Democrat resolution as necessary to safeguard the Constitution and the rule of law, adding that the border crisis “is not about the border.”
“But this isn’t about the border. This is about the Constitution of the United States. This is not about politics. It’s not about partisanship. It’s about patriotism. And so, again, once we pass this resolution, we will send it over to the Senate. All members, as I say, have taken the oath of office. We would be delinquent in our duties if we did not resist, if we did not fight back to overturn the president’s declaration,” she said.
While announcing the resolution Friday, introduced by Rep. Joaquin Castro, (D-TX), Pelosi said she would support Trump’s emergency declaration if the border crisis — which she calls manufactured — were real. “The president does have such a right to do such a thing when there is a true emergency,” Pelosi said.
House will vote Tuesday
President Trump moved ahead with a national emergency declaration earlier this month after signing a compromise spending bill from Congress to avoid a second government shutdown that delivered only a little more than $1 billion for the border wall, far short of Trump’s desired $5.7 billion. The national emergency seeks to supplement the wall funding from Congress with money from the Pentagon’s budget. Democrats immediately vowed to oppose the emergency declaration with the full force of the judicial branch and Congress.
A legal challenge to the executive order from sixteen states, led by California, is winding through the courts. Meanwhile, the House will vote Tuesday on the resolution to terminate the national emergency and it is expected to move on to the Senate. It wouldn’t take many Republican defections to pass the resolution, but Trump will certainly veto it, likely setting up an override vote that would require an elusive two-thirds vote in both chambers for the Democrats to succeed.
Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) came out against the declaration Monday, saying that it wouldn’t be right to criticize Obama for expanding executive power while approving of the same thing by Trump. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) have also said they will oppose the emergency declaration, while others have wavered, leading Trump to warn shaky Republicans not to be deceived by the Democrats’ open borders “trap.”
“I hope our great Republican Senators don’t get led down the path of weak and ineffective Border Security,” he tweeted. “Without strong Borders, we don’t have a Country – and the voters are on board with us. Be strong and smart, don’t fall into the Democrats ‘trap’ of Open Borders and Crime!”
Who’s patriotic?
President Obama greatly expanded presidential power, invoking executive privilege to unilaterally bypass immigration law and protect illegals from deportation with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), among other power grabs. The same liberals who gave Obama a pass now describe Trump’s emergency declaration as a dictatorial move that undermines the rule of law.
Of course, Democrats have constantly likened the Trump administration to a dictatorship that is chipping away at the Constitution and American values every day, so Pelosi’s rhetoric is nothing new. It’s also not surprising coming from the politician who has called DREAMers — illegal migrants protected from deportation by DACA — “patriotic.”
Some Republicans also warned that Trump’s declaration goes against the Constitution and could empower a future Democratic president to bypass Congress. One can argue about the legality or prudence of Trump’s emergency, but talk of “patriotism” is ironic, coming from the party that has embraced open borders in everything but name.
Rather than acknowledging the real crisis at the border, Pelosi has opted to deflect while attempting to invoke the authority of the Founders and the Constitution to bolster her party’s position on immigration. “What the president is saying about the border is mythology. It’s not reality, but this is not about the wall. Whatever you think about the wall, think about the Constitution of the United States,” she said Monday.
Pelosi can claim to speak for the Founders, but it was their intention for America to be sovereign, not borderless. Pelosi’s idea of “patriotism” doesn’t have anything to do with putting the country first. What does she really stand for?
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