For Trump, a 'national emergency' is anything he says it is -- including the migrant caravan
By David Nakamura October 31 at 6:34 PM
President Trump declared a national emergency last week — in a tweet.
Aiming his ire at a caravan of migrant families hundreds of miles from the United States, Trump vowed he was “bringing out the military for a National Emergency.” His administration then authorized sending more than 5,000 active-duty troops to the border. But Trump has filed no legal proclamation declaring a national crisis as required under a 1976 law enacted to rein in abuses of executive power by granting presidents additional authorities only in specific instances and for a limited time frame.
For Trump, the caravan is an emergency merely because he said so.
Critics said the president’s approach represents another measure of his willingness to act outside the bounds of his predecessors — in this case using an official term to portray migrants as dangerous and to stoke public fears ahead of next week’s midterm elections.
They warned that Trump is priming supporters to place their faith solely in his judgment over what warrants an emergency response from the executive branch. Their fears grew more acute this month when the Federal Emergency Management Agency tested a new presidential alert system, which allows the White House to issue notifications to every cellphone in the nation.
more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-trump-a-national-emergency-is-anything-he-says-it-is--including-the-migrant-caravan/2018/10/31/6954bbf4-dd1a-11e8-85df-7a6b4d25cfbb_story.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
