A national emergency along the border?

A NATIONAL EMERGENCY.

All upper-case letters. Sounds serious, doesn’t it? Especially when it’s happening on our own southern border, based on President Donald Trump’s inaugural remarks made this Monday.

Too many people crossing illegally. Too much fentanyl coming across the border, killing Americans. Too much chaos. Something needs to be done, said Trump.

Turns out, we’re already under a NATIONAL EMERGENCY.

Have been ever since George W. signed the first one right after 9-11.

The one thing every president has done since, including Biden last December, is sign a paper that extends the NATIONAL EMERGENCY.

Actually, for the sake of accuracy, the declaration that Bush Jr. first signed, and all subsequent presidents since, is called the National Emergencies Act.

Under that act, presidents can declare a national emergency to unlock new powers with the simple stroke of a pen. The act is intended to temporarily enhance the executive power to respond to a crisis that can’t wait for Congress to act.

But once new powers are assumed, are they ever again relinquished?

During a national emergency, presidents have over 100 statutory authorities they don’t usually have. (Source: Newsweek.com.)

All the presidential players, both Republican and Democrat, seem to have liked the deal, since they all extended it, in perpetuity, or so it seems.

This ongoing national emergency allows the executive branch to access certain powers and authorities to address the ongoing threat of “terrorism,” which, unlike a particular known enemy who actually lives and breathes, will never go away.

New Border Action

In the case of the 47th president, by specifically declaring the entire southern border a national emergency this Monday, he can now unilaterally pass new border, immigration-related plans without congressional approval, and he can also get things accomplished at a much quicker pace than if he had to deal with the House and Senate.

Hence the obvious reason that all presidents since 2001 have declined to shelve the National Emergencies Act.

With regard to the border, based on what most so-called legit news outlets are reporting, President Trump’s border plans include sending both U.S. military and National Guard troops along our border with Mexico to basically form some sort of shield that won’t let anything cross into U.S. territory.

Monday, he said that the troops “will repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”

Thanks to the National Emergencies Act, he can redirect money from other federal programs to finance the effort to secure, as he put it Monday, the border.

Which is a tall order, considering that from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Coast south of San Diego, you’re talking approximately 1,954 miles. Mainly comprised of hostile climate and nature that bites and stings.

Border crossings are currently the lowest since Biden took office in January 2021, but still nearly double what they were at the highest point during Trump’s first term in office, 2017 through 2020. (Source: Newsweek.com.)

As part of Trump’s border policy, no one, no thing, is getting across, without lawful approval, whether they be asylum seekers or drugs (mainly fentanyl).

Certain to battle most of his new border policies — lawsuits from his policy opponents.

There’s been no number yet given — obviously too early to know — exactly how many troops will land along the RGV, but it will, no doubt, boost the local economy.

In 2021, when Gov. Greg Abbott launched his own Operation Lonestar to respond to the border crisis (his words), all the DPS troopers he sent to the Valley spent a lot of money at area hotels, motels, and restaurants.

These were the upscale hotels, too. After all, it was public money. If anything, the feds have even more money than the state. At least in theory, thanks to the printing press.

Last but not least, during his inaugural speech, the president declared Mexico’s drug cartels as “terrorist organizations.”

That will presumably put pressure on Mexico to help secure the border, because it won’t want to be labeled a “foreign sponsor of terror.”

How fair that is, will be anyone’s guess. In Mexico, based on logic, it would only stand to reason that to retain and/or initially win political office, each politician must meet certain cartel demands.

Those who don’t agree to work with the devil, presumably include the approximate 60 Mexican politicos killed in 2024 in both the general and local elections.

Crossing asylum seekers into the U.S., after all, has turned into big business for the multiple drug cartels in control of the crossing points along the border. The profits from trafficking fentanyl, meth into the U.S., huge.

So if a Mexican federal politician wants to get in the way of the drug cartels, or the head of a certain political party wants to do something to better secure the border, what’s going to happen then?