Trump declares national emergency to build border wall

TIL Desk/World/Washington/ President Donald Trump on Friday declared national emergency, a move that would unlock billions of dollars of federal money to construct a wall along the United States-Mexico border, saying the move was essential to prevent the country from ‘invasion’ of illegal immigrants.

Trump’s move followed a rare show of bipartisanship on Thursday when legislators voted to fund large swaths of the government and avoid a repeat of the recent five-week government shutdown.

The money in the bill for border barriers, about $1.4 billion, is far below the $5.7 billion Trump insisted he needed to build the physical barrier. It would finance just a quarter of the more than 322 kilometres he wanted this year.

Amidst slamming by Democrats and human rights organisations as unlawful and abuse of his constitutional powers, Trump told reporters in the Rose Garden that the move to declare emergency was essential to prevent the US from ‘invasion’ of illegal immigrants, drug dealers and criminal cartels.