The White House showdown is only just beginning. Ranging from political disputes to lawsuits from 16 states. President Donald Trump proceeds to steam forward with the construction of a wall on the southern border and has used his authority to declare a national emergency. In addition, he’s even tweeted that the wall’s construction is currently in progress.

“The wall is under construction right now,” Trump said in a tweet on Feb. 22, 2019.

National Emergency

The national emergency gives a number of powers to the president to use in response to a crisis, exigency, or emergency circumstances threatening the nation. Declaring a national emergency is a profound step. Furthermore, pulling this act would allow President Trump to redirect federal funds and use them for border wall construction.

“I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster,” Trump said in a speech. This clarified that other routes could’ve been taken but the national emergency act was the quickest route.

Furthermore, not only do national emergencies take away from federal funding, but it takes away from natural disasters that need to be paid for, and the war areas that need to be fixed, and more. Moreover, this emergency is pulling from the housing for military personnel, the California wildfires, and the hurricane damage in Puerto Rico.

States Lawsuits

In result of these actions, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Virginia, California, and New York are competing against Trump in court over his plan to use emergency powers. The lawsuit was filed at the Federal District in San Francisco. It stated that the president does not have the power to divert the funds for construction. This clarified that only Congress can control spending. 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.” Additionally, the states will be going to court to protect their residents, natural resources, and economy.

However, mostly Democrats control the House of Representatives at the moment. In result, the main factor all of these states have in common are the fact they are all governed by a Democrat. Lawmakers could also vote to override the declaration that an emergency exists. It’s debatable that Congress has the votes to override Trump’s certain veto, leaving the courts a more likely venue.