Full Text of SR0132 101st General Assembly
SR0132 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | SENATE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, President Trump declared a national emergency on | 3 | | Friday, January 15, 2019 by falsely declaring that there is an | 4 | | invasion of drugs, human traffickers, criminals, and gangs in | 5 | | the United States; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, By declaring a national emergency, President | 7 | | Trump plans to take funding away from military projects, | 8 | | including facility maintenance, family housing at military | 9 | | bases across the country, and schools for children of members | 10 | | of the military; and
| 11 | | WHEREAS, President Trump will use $600 million from a | 12 | | Treasury Department forfeiture fund, $2.5 billion from a | 13 | | military anti-drug account, and $3.6 billion in military | 14 | | construction funds to fund a permanent wall to help civilian | 15 | | agencies police the border, even though Congress already | 16 | | appropriated $1.375 billion for new border barriers; and
| 17 | | WHEREAS, During his run for the presidency, candidate Trump | 18 | | used racist, xenophobic talking points and, at one point, | 19 | | accused Mexican immigrants of bringing drugs and crime into the | 20 | | country and of being rapists; he also claimed that Mexico, a | 21 | | sovereign nation, would pay for the wall; and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, The Department of Homeland Security has stated | 2 | | that undocumented immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated | 3 | | for crimes in the United States than native-born Americans, and | 4 | | that number has consistently declined since 2016; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, The number of unauthorized immigrants who have | 6 | | crossed the border without documents has sharply declined; when | 7 | | candidate Trump took office, the number of undocumented | 8 | | immigrants had decreased from 12.2 million in 2007 to 10.7 | 9 | | million in 2016; and
| 10 | | WHEREAS, The Trump Administration's own 2018 Drug Threat | 11 | | Assessment found that only a small percentage of heroin seized | 12 | | by Customs and Border Protection Agents along the land border | 13 | | was between ports of entry; most of the drugs seized by Customs | 14 | | and Border Protection Agents were along the United | 15 | | States-Mexico border in the San Diego corridor; and
| 16 | | WHEREAS, By the President's own admission, he "did not have | 17 | | to [declare a national emergency], but he just wanted [the | 18 | | wall] built faster to fulfill a campaign promise"; a national | 19 | | emergency is a situation that is immediately threatening the | 20 | | livelihood of Americans, not something declared to appease a | 21 | | President; and
| 22 | | WHEREAS, Congress is the branch in charge of federal |
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| 1 | | appropriations, a power granted to the legislative branch by | 2 | | the United States Constitution; the executive branch does not | 3 | | have the power to override Congress's appropriation powers for | 4 | | a manufactured emergency; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, President Trump is abusing the power of executive | 6 | | orders to circumvent the United States Constitution and | 7 | | Congress to override the American people's will to not fund the | 8 | | wall; Congress compromised and allocated funds to reinforce | 9 | | border patrol and existing walls; if the President seeks more | 10 | | funding, he should use the art of the deal to negotiate a | 11 | | compromise that better suits his need; therefore, be it
| 12 | | RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL | 13 | | ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we reject President | 14 | | Trump's national emergency that is fueled by racist and | 15 | | xenophobic rhetoric; we urge Congress and the Courts to uphold | 16 | | our system of checks and balances and the existence of | 17 | | separation of powers between the judicial, legislative, and | 18 | | executive branches; and be it further
| 19 | | RESOLVED, That we urge Congress to reject the diversion of | 20 | | funding from military projects, including facility | 21 | | maintenance, family housing at military bases across the | 22 | | country, and schools for children of members of the military; | 23 | | and be it further
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| 1 | | RESOLVED, That we urge Congress to revoke the national | 2 | | emergency by passing a joint resolution to revoke the | 3 | | unnecessary state of emergency.
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