UPDATED: 2019/02/19 2:00PM
President Trump declared on Friday, February 15th, that he would spend billions of dollar more on his border wall than Congress had granted him, using his emergency powers to do so. Now, 16 states have challenged President Trump on Monday, February 18th in court over his plan to fund his multi-billion dollar border wall.
The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in San Francisco, argues that President Trump does not have the power to divert funds for his border wall because Congress is the branch of government that controls the spending.
Trump’s thoughts on the matter are contradictory sat best. He is quoted as saying, “I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster.”
The lawsuit states, “Contrary to the will of Congress, the president has used the pretext of a manufactured ‘crisis’ of unlawful immigration to declare a national emergency and redirect federal dollars appropriated for drug interdiction, military construction and law enforcement initiatives toward building a wall on the United States-Mexico border.”
Lawmakers are attempting to fight Trump’s plan and challenge his declaration, with the House of Representatives taking their own approach, which also includes a lawsuit. Congress, however, does not likely have the votes to override Trump’s veto.
States included on the lawsuit are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Virginia.