BOISE — About 200 people gathered on the steps of the Idaho State Capitol to voice their concerns over the emergency declaration President Trump issued last Friday.
The President is using the emergency declaration to bypass Congress, who denied the $5.7 billion he requested to build a wall on the southern border.
"The situation we are facing right now, from a constitutional standpoint, is simply unprecedented," said Betty Richardson one of the speakers and a former attorney with the Idaho Justice Department.
Every single president has issued an emergency declaration since Congress passed the National Emergencies Act of 1976. However, this is the first time a president has used that executive power to fund a project that was denied by Congress.
"It is an absolute overreach of executive power," said Adrienne Evans, the organizer of the protest. "It is really a dangerous time in our country because of the power grab that we are seeing across this administration."
The National Emergencies Act of 1976 also gives Congress the power to repeal President Trump's emergency declaration, but President Trump would be able to veto the resolution and it would then go back to Congress where both the House and the Senate would need a 2/3 vote to override the veto.
Although Evans said the border wall wouldn't work and that the President is claiming a false immigration crisis, last week we talked with Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue, who said the wall would help with border security. Here is the link to that story.
