President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the border was sure to meet its opposition, and now Congressman Ruben Gallego, who represents Arizona’s 7thDistrict, is maintaining that he's been answering that call since being elected.
In a statement, Rep. Gallego responded to President Trump’s action to declare a national emergency to build a border wall.
Gallego explained that he “took an oath to defend the Constitution when I joined the military. I took an oath to defend the Constitution when I became a Member of Congress. As a veteran, an elected representative, and an American citizen, I will continue to honor my oaths and fight unconstitutional power grabs by President Trump to build a useless wall.”
Rep. Gallego further explained that “Trump’s decision to declare a fake national emergency and illegally use taxpayer dollars intended to support our servicemembers is an attack on our nation’s most sacred traditions and institutions. The real national emergency is Donald Trump’s presidency.”
Gallego has been involved in the fight to prevent President Trump from redirecting military funds to build a wall along the souther border. Most recently, Gallego reintroduced an amendment that would prevent the President from using NDAA military funds to pay for the wall, but it was defeated by Republicans on the Armed Services Committee.
The declaration has been met with heavy criticism from Democrats, and the ACLU announced shortly after the declaration was made that they would be suing the President because “there is no emergency.” They echoed in Gallego’s remarks, saying that the declarations “is an unconstitutional power grab that hurts American communities.”
However, freshman Senator Kyrsten Sinema has not been vocal about the President’s declaration. Instead, her response to the President signing the government funding bill on the same day the declaration was made only suggested that there’s more work to be done.
Sinema commented that “Congress just did its job, approving more resources for border security. Congress has more work to do on immigration and border security, and I will keep working with my colleagues to get it done.”
