Senator Crapo Letter February 20, 2019

February 20, 2019

Senator Mike Crapo
United States Senate
Washington, D.C.

Dear Senator Crapo;

We are writing to you today to express our alarm and frustration with the Trump administration’s emergency declaration. During his rambling Rose Garden speech in which the president veered from China to N Korea to job growth the President announced his emergency declaration to address the “emergency on our southern border”.

We are reassured by your February 2019 statement concerning your vote to fund border security. You note that the “funding package included $1.3 billion for physical security and an unprecedented $22.5 billion for overall border security initiatives.’ Your statement continues, “The President has also indicated he intends to declare a national emergency to use specific powers to secure our border. We need additional physical barriers securing our border.  In the coming days, I will work closely with my Senate colleagues and with the White House to learn the details of the President’s intentions and how they will be implemented.” 

President Trump’s declaration differs from past declarations; the president is using this method to get funding greater than that allocated by Congress as per the US Constitution. Senator Crapo we implore you to join with your fellow senators to block this declaration. Republican Senator Susan Collins stated, “The president is usurping congressional authority, rendering the appropriation process meaningless,” calling it a “flagrant breach of congressional jurisdiction and a dangerous precedent.”¹

The signatories to this letter have repeatedly reminded your office of the truthful realities regarding immigration at our southern borders and not the hyperbolic divisive statements out of this administration concerning the ‘threats to our country’ from the southern border. Immigration is at an all-time low, those seeking asylum are not a threat to our security, families continue to be separated, many Idaho industries rely on immigrant labor, immigration benefits Idaho business. This is a human rights issue and not one to be battered about in an effort to distract and obfuscate. Attached find Fact Checked statements regarding immigration from NPR.^{2 3}

The president’s public assertion that he didn’t need to make this emergency declaration now has many people scratching their heads. How do this administration and the Republican Party define an emergency? Trump’s Rose Garden speech included a rundown of the court challenges he anticipates the declaration will face, culminating with the Supreme Court where ‘he may get a fair shake’. This statement raises many red flags for your constituents. Apparently neither the US Constitution nor the Supreme Court can protect us and truth left town in 2016.

We remind you that the Rose Garden speech was scheduled after both houses of Congress submitted a bipartisan package to avert another shutdown after the longest shutdown on record, which Mr. Trump failed to address.

These undersigned constituents understand the need for better border security. We support a clear, humane, expedient immigration policy consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.⁴

Sincerely,

156 Concerned Constituents

1^ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/15/us/politics/trump-presidency-national-emergency.html?module=inline

2^ https://www.npr.org/2019/01/08/683205814/fact-check-trumps-oval-office-pitch-for-a-border-wall

3^ https://www.npr.org/2018/11/02/663532238/fact-check-migrants-are-not-overwhelming-the-southwest-border

4^ https://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf