End Trump's Fake Emergency
Senator Dianne Feinstein
SF Office: (415) 393-0707
DC Office: (202) 224-3841
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Senator Kamala Harris
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DC Office: (202) 224-3553
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LA Office: (213) 894-5000
San Diego Office: (619) 239-3884
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Speaker Nancy Pelosi
SF Office: (415) 556-4862
DC Office: (202) 225-4965
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Rep. Jackie Speier
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DC Office: (202) 225-3531
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Call Script
My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.
Trump's declaration of a fake national emergency to steal funds for his racist wall is an outrageous abuse of power that clearly violates the constitutional framework of separation of powers and the democratic concept of co-equal branches of government.
Therefore, I strongly urge you to:
Vote to terminate this phony emergency using the procedures provided by the National Emergencies Act.
File suit in federal court to block Trump's unconstitutional usurpation of congressional appropriation powers.
Immediately schedule hearings and investigations into this and other abuses of power by Trump and his administration.
Amend the National Emergencies Act to place appropriate limits on a president's emergency authority, clearly define what constitutes a "national emergency," and strengthen the role of Congress in overseeing and if necessary rescinding national emergencies.
Context
The Constitution created three co-equal branches of government—legislative, judicial, and executive—to provide checks and balances against abuses of power. Congress is given the power of the purse. If Trump is allowed to create a fake "emergency" that overrides and nullifies congressional decisions on how money is allocated and spent he can assume autocratic power that threatens our democracy.
Background:
Trump’s “national emergency” is a fake emergency.
Trump wants you to think immigrants and asylum seekers are a threat, rather than people who want to join America, so he peddles lies and fear-mongering.
On the basis of that imagined threat, he demands a border wall (or “barrier”). Since no one wants to pay for it, he has declared a fake “national emergency.”
A fake emergency is an unconstitutional power grab.
Building Trump’s wall/barrier requires:
Stealing money that Congress appropriated for other purposes.
Seizing the private property of Americans living and working along the border.
Deploying the U.S. military within the U.S., and issuing “defense” contracts to for-profit companies, for the purpose of building the wall/barrier.
These actions are wrong, and betray the country and our Constitution in service of racism and greed and Trump’s own lust for power.
That is the real emergency.
Trump is seizing powers beyond those of the presidency for no real purpose except to have them and wield them, unchecked by Congress, unaccountable to the people.
That is an emergency, and Congress can and must act.
We call on Congress to immediately end the fake emergency, and remind Trump:
Congress alone—on our behalf—holds the power of the purse.
Seizing Americans’ private property is an abuse of power.
The military is not to be deployed within the United States (Posse Comitatus).
Looting public coffers to enrich private companies is unacceptable.
References
Tell your MoCs: Reject Trump’s fake emergency. (Indivisible National)
Trump Just Declared a Fake Emergency to Get His Way (Indivisible National)
Trump Declares National Emergency to Build Border Wall (New York Times February 15, 2019)
Trump Declares a National Emergency, and Provokes a Constitutional Clash (New York Times, February 15, 2019)
What the President Could Do If He Declares a State of Emergency (The Atlantic, January/February 2019)
The Real Problem With Trump’s National Emergency Plan (Peter Schuck, l4, February 14, 2019)