BORDER/GOP/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE/WALL: “Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Friday [2-22-19] he is concerned about the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration to grab funding for a border wall, bypassing the will of Congress…Speaking at POLITICO’s State Solutions Conference, Hutchinson said drugs and undocumented immigrants coming across the southern border did constitute an emergency, but he did not frame the issue in the same terms as Trump. The president has long used the notion of influxes of narcotics and human trafficking across the border to justify the construction of a physical barrier along the southern border. Trump’s own administration and numerous studies, however, have shown that most illegal traffic occurs at ports of entry and that the impact of a physical wall might be marginal. After a protracted showdown with Democrats in Congress that included feuding arguments, petty letters and the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, Trump declared a national emergency last week to squeeze out funding for the wall. The emergency declaration prompted immediate pushback over its constitutionality: Trump’s critics argue using funds explicitly rejected for a given purpose impinges on congressional power of the purse.”
–Matthew Choi, “Arkansas governor calls Trump’s border emergency declaration ‘worrisome’,” Politico, February 22, 2019 3:03 pm