Calls for President Donald Trump to justify his national emergency could be heard across the country on Presidents’ Day and one of those places was the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola.
Some 55 protesters gathered Monday for a protest called “The True National Emergency is the Trump Presidency,” with signs that read “No one is above the law” and “Arrest Trump for Crimes against Humanity.”
Another sign said: “I like presidents who weren’t helped by foreign enemies and aren’t supported by domestic ones. But that’s just me… 625 days ’til Election Day 2020.”
According to a post from MoveOn, a grassroots civic action group that organized the event, there were 277 protests across 48 states with at least 50,000 attendees.
There were two others demonstrations on Long Island, one in Port Jefferson and the other in Bridgehampton.
Trump declared a national emergency last Friday in order to secure additional funding for his campaign promise of a border wall to keep illegal immigrants from entering the country.
He said he would spend billions of dollars more on barriers at the border than what Congress granted. Trump had been seeking $5.7 billion for the wall, but received no specifically designated funds from Congress after agreeing to a compromise to avoid another government shutdown over the issue.
By announcing a state of emergency, the president may be able to control federal spending and bypass Congress, but he is facing serious legal challenges.
In his televised announcement, he said that he did not need to declare a national announcement but wants to complete the project sooner.
Sixteen states, including New York, recently filed a lawsuit declaring the national emergency unconstitutional.
In the lawsuit, the State of California et. al. v. Trump et. al., the plaintiffs argue that they are protecting their residents by preventing the redirection of funding that many states need to fight the drug epidemic, or for military construction and law enforcement initiatives to an unnecessary border wall.
