Newsom On Emergency Declaration For Border Wall: 'Donald Trump, We'll See You In Court'
SACRAMENTO (AP) - California is likely to sue President Donald Trump over his emergency declaration to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, the state attorney general said Friday.
Attorney General Xavier Becerra at a joint news conference with Gov. Gavin Newsom said there is no emergency at the border and Trump doesn't have the authority to make the declaration.
"No one in America is above the law, not even the president of the United States," Becerra said. "The president does not have power to act frivolously."
Trump declared a national emergency earlier in the day to bypass Congress to use money from the Pentagon and other budgets to fulfill his promise of completing the border wall. The president said illegal immigrants were invading the country.
The announcement was immediately met with resistance from members of Congress.
Becerra and Newsom said they were reviewing the emergency declaration but are likely to join other states in suing.
Both challenged the notion that there was a real emergency. Becerra said past presidents used such declarations after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Iran hostage crisis in 1979.
Newsom said the wall is a "monument to stupidity" that would not make the country safer.
California has repeatedly challenged Trump in court. Becerra has filed at least 45 lawsuits against the administration.
Copyright 2019 The Associated Press.
