Trump Drafts Emergency Order for Border Wall Funding

Breaking:

The White House is preparing an emergency declaration that President Donald Trump could issue as a way to circumvent Congress if lawmakers do not provide funding for a wall along the U.S. southern border, CNN reported on Thursday, citing internal documents.

The draft proclamation was updated as early as last week, a U.S. government official told CNN. CNN said Trump's advisers remain divided on the issue.

The report comes as a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced an amendment in the Senate that would temporarily open the U.S. government, which has been partially shut for a record 34 days over Trump's demand for wall funding.

"The massive amount of aliens who unlawfully enter the United States each day is a direct threat to the safety and security of our nation and constitutes a national emergency," a draft of a presidential proclamation reads.

"Now, therefore, I, Donald J. Trump, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C 1601, et seq.), hereby declare that a national emergency exists at the southern border of the United States," the draft adds.

According to options being considered, the administration could pull: $681 million from treasury forfeiture funds, $3.6 billion in military construction, $3 billion in Pentagon civil works funds, and $200 million in Department of Homeland Security funds, a White House official told CNN.

The US Army Corps of Engineers would be deployed to construct the wall of the declaration is made. Some of the wall could be built on private property and would therefore require the administration to seize the land, which is permitted if it's for public use.

The administration is prepared for lawsuits if they move forward with acquiring private property, CNN reported. The documents also reflect a sense of urgency with administration plans, noting that environmental reviews can be skipped and DHS can use waivers to bypass contracting laws.

Any declaration likely will be challenged in court and by Democrats in Congress, as critics have argued that Trump cannot use the national emergency authority to free up taxpayer funds and build the border wall he has long promised his political supporters.

Earlier story:

President Donald Trump would agree to temporarily reopen the government if Congress provides a 'large down payment' for a border wall, his spokeswoman said, as senators discussed a new compromise effort after blocking two rival proposals to end the 34-day partial shutdown.

Trump said on Thursday if Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer come to an agreement to end the partial government shutdown, he would support it.

"If they come to a reasonable agreement I would support it, yes," Trump told reporters as he met with Republican lawmakers to discuss trade.

McConnell and Schumer met privately in McConnell’s office Thursday to discuss a path forward. GOP Senator Lindsey Graham said he hoped a deal could be reached after he spoke with the president about a bipartisan proposal to fund the shuttered federal agencies for three weeks.

'As was made clear to Senator Lindsey Graham, the three-week CR would only work if there is a large down payment on the wall,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, referring to a stopgap spending bill.

Graham said such a measure may have to contain some additional provisions to satisfy both sides.

“If we can get in a room, we can fix this, and it won’t take three weeks,” said Graham of South Carolina.

Minutes earlier, the Senate rejected two proposals -- one by Trump and one by Democrats -- intended to reopen the government. They were the first votes the Senate has taken on funding the government since the Dec. 22 start of the shutdown, now the longest in modern U.S. history.

'We will not Cave!' Trump tweeted a few hours before the votes.

The Democratic proposal attracted two more votes than the Trump-backed Republican plan, but both fell well short of the 60 needed to advance.

After meeting with McConnell, Schumer exited, smiling. 'We’re talking, we’re talking,' he said.

At the same time, a bipartisan group of 16 senators -- eight from each party -- took to the chamber’s floor to say they want to reopen the government for three weeks to allow time for work on a bipartisan border security deal.

'I think we can do this together,' said Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a leader of the effort. 'But we can’t do it with the government shut down.”

Six Republicans had voted to advance the Democratic bill: Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Susan Collins of Maine, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah. Three senators, two Republicans and a Democrat, were absent.

Just last month, the Republican-controlled Senate had backed the Democratic measure by voice vote before Trump suddenly opposed it, triggering the closure.

The president late Wednesday acquiesced to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s cancellation of his planned Jan. 29 State of the Union address in her chamber until the government reopens. The Treasury Department, Department of Homeland Security and Environmental Protection Agency are closed as Trump fights for his 2016 campaign promise to build a wall at the border with Mexico.

In advance of the votes, McConnell called Trump’s plan a “pragmatic compromise that could end this impasse right away' by getting the president’s signature. He said the Democrats’ temporary measure creates the possibility of a new crisis in several weeks when funding expires.

Schumer said Trump’s proposal was a 'harshly partisan' plan that would give the president all he wants before reopening the government. The Democratic proposal would reopen federal agencies and allow time for negotiations over border security, he said.

The pain inflicted by the shutdown is “getting deeper and deeper every day,” with 800,000 federal employees set to miss another paycheck on Friday, Schumer said.

Trump’s proposal faced strong objections from Democrats who oppose the wall and the plan’s changes in immigration law including new limits on asylum claims by Central American minors.

The Trump bill would ban people under age 18 from El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras from receiving U.S. asylum unless they apply at a processing center in Central America. That means they couldn’t apply in the U.S. if they fled their home countries due to gang violence, as many have done.

In an effort to gain Democratic votes, the Trump proposal would provide a three-year protection from deportation for young undocumented people enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Similar protection would be given to people from countries like El Salvador and Haiti who live and work in the U.S legally because of civil turmoil or natural disasters in those countries. Trump has sought to end both programs.

However, the DACA extension would leave out hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. It would protect only those already enrolled in the program, and not other young immigrants who might be eligible.

The White House had said Trump would veto the House-passed short-term measure. Overcoming a veto would require 20 Senate Republicans to vote with all 47 members of the Democratic caucus to reach a two-thirds vote for an override. Thursday’s Senate vote showed support well below what would be needed.

In the House, 237 lawmakers voted for the bill, far short of the 290 needed to override a veto in that chamber.

Attention now turns back to the House, where Democrats say they are preparing to offer a proposal to boost border security -- but not build a wall -- by spending an amount close to the $5.7 billion he wants for the wall.

Information from Reuters and Bloomberg news services were used in this story.