That’s the crux of President Trump’s argument. “We’re talking about an invasion of our country,” Trump said when he announced the emergency declaration, “with drugs, with human traffickers, with all types of criminals and gangs.”
Critics argue that the facts don’t support that. The number of people crossing the border illegally is far lower than it was in the late 1990s and early 2000s, according to official government statistics. The relatively new and growing phenomenon of caravans of Central American migrants consists largely of families who present themselves to border officials and request asylum, rather than trying to elude authorities. Thousands of these Central American families have been apprehended in recent months. Critics say a wall would have little effect on the flow of illegal drugs into the country, which U.S. Customs and Border Protection says are mostly smuggled through official ports of entry.
President Trump may also have undercut his own argument for declaring an emergency when he told reporters at the White House, “I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster. I just want to get it done faster, that’s all.”
“Probably the best evidence [for overturning the declaration] is the president’s own words,” says California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.