SR0132 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0132 LRB101 11261 ALS 56569 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, President Trump declared a national emergency on Friday, January 15, 2019 by falsely declaring that there is an invasion of drugs, human traffickers, criminals, and gangs in the United States; and

WHEREAS, By declaring a national emergency, President Trump plans to take funding away from military projects, including facility maintenance, family housing at military bases across the country, and schools for children of members of the military; and

WHEREAS, President Trump will use $600 million from a Treasury Department forfeiture fund, $2.5 billion from a military anti-drug account, and $3.6 billion in military construction funds to fund a permanent wall to help civilian agencies police the border, even though Congress already appropriated $1.375 billion for new border barriers; and

WHEREAS, During his run for the presidency, candidate Trump used racist, xenophobic talking points and, at one point, accused Mexican immigrants of bringing drugs and crime into the country and of being rapists; he also claimed that Mexico, a sovereign nation, would pay for the wall; and

WHEREAS, The Department of Homeland Security has stated that undocumented immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated for crimes in the United States than native-born Americans, and that number has consistently declined since 2016; and

WHEREAS, The number of unauthorized immigrants who have crossed the border without documents has sharply declined; when candidate Trump took office, the number of undocumented immigrants had decreased from 12.2 million in 2007 to 10.7 million in 2016; and

WHEREAS, The Trump Administration's own 2018 Drug Threat Assessment found that only a small percentage of heroin seized by Customs and Border Protection Agents along the land border was between ports of entry; most of the drugs seized by Customs and Border Protection Agents were along the United States-Mexico border in the San Diego corridor; and

WHEREAS, By the President's own admission, he "did not have to [declare a national emergency], but he just wanted [the wall] built faster to fulfill a campaign promise"; a national emergency is a situation that is immediately threatening the livelihood of Americans, not something declared to appease a President; and

WHEREAS, Congress is the branch in charge of federal appropriations, a power granted to the legislative branch by the United States Constitution; the executive branch does not have the power to override Congress's appropriation powers for a manufactured emergency; and

WHEREAS, President Trump is abusing the power of executive orders to circumvent the United States Constitution and Congress to override the American people's will to not fund the wall; Congress compromised and allocated funds to reinforce border patrol and existing walls; if the President seeks more funding, he should use the art of the deal to negotiate a compromise that better suits his need; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we reject President Trump's national emergency that is fueled by racist and xenophobic rhetoric; we urge Congress and the Courts to uphold our system of checks and balances and the existence of separation of powers between the judicial, legislative, and executive branches; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we urge Congress to reject the diversion of funding from military projects, including facility maintenance, family housing at military bases across the country, and schools for children of members of the military; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we urge Congress to revoke the national emergency by passing a joint resolution to revoke the unnecessary state of emergency.