Earlier today President Donald Trump delivered remarks announcing his intention to use a national emergency declaration to fund border security measures at the U.S-Mexico border.  This comes on the heels of a legislative compromise to avoid a government shutdown.
The move is expected to face a swift and forceful legal challenge that could stall the attempt in the courts for the near future. But the declaration and other money-moving plans allow Trump to continue to fight for border wall construction while also averting another partial government shutdown — which would have been triggered at midnight absent the new funding package. [Video and Transcript]

.
[Transcript] Rose Garden – 10:39 A.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, everybody. Before we begin, I’d like to just say that we have a large team of very talented people in China. We’ve had a negotiation going on for about two days. It’s going extremely well. Who knows what that means, because it only matters if we get it done. But we’re very much working very closely with China and President Xi, who I respect a lot. Very good relationship that we have. And we’re a lot closer than we ever were in this country with having a real trade deal.
(more…)

The Supreme Court has agreed to take up the issue of the 2020 census citizenship question, and legal challenges per the Commerce Dept -vs- New York.

(pdf link)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court said Friday that it will take up the battle over a citizenship question for the coming census, agreeing to hear and decide the case before the court’s term ends in late June. (more)

The White House has announced that President Trump will sign the Pelosi appropriations bill that includes limited funding for border security, and will simultaneously use a National Security Declaration to shift existing funds to build a structural barrier.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell met with the President and announced the plan from the senate floor before the chamber votes on the compromise bill.

.@senatemajldr: "I've just had an opportunity to speak with President Trump…he's prepared to sign the bill. He will also be issuing a national emergency declaration at the same time." pic.twitter.com/iukGKjmoZ8

— CSPAN (@cspan) February 14, 2019

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders statement:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has stated she will review options to file legal challenges to stop the use of a national security declaration to build a border barrier.
(more…)

The actual budget appropriations bill is seven compartments consisting of more than 5,000 pages. However, here is the 29 page summary outlining the key elements as negotiated by congress.
WARNING: This is a bad deal, but it reflects the UniParty reality within congress.  Take a deep breath; don’t lash out.  Remember, there are very few MAGA minded representatives. This was negotiated by two wings of the same corporate bird and both want open borders.

[scribd id=399623170 key=key-SCOGFaqwlDLsswYDoZHx mode=scroll]
.

• Provides $1.375 billion, or $4.325 billion less than the $5.7 billion the Trump administration requested, for a very limited 55 miles of physical barrier that can only be placed along the southern border in *only* the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
• Contains language allowing only fencing designs in use as of 2017.
• No funding for new border patrol agents above the current on board levels.
• Does not fund the Administration’s request for joint detention facilities.
• No funding for additional enforcement and removal field personnel.

(more…)

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman appears on Fox News to discuss the border security funding bill.  Senator Graham urges President Trump to accept the deal that is presented and move on.

(more…)

The language of the bipartisan border security funding legislation is still being written. Unfortunately, reports indicate Democrat language will be inserted into the DHS funding bill that will allow any town, city, municipality, mayor, city manager or local council within any border state to veto the construction of any structural border security wall or fence.
This definitely sounds like an approach the Lawfare group would be assisting with.  Despite overwhelming support from the majority of Americans, the DC Uniparty seems to consistently find a way to usurp national sovereignty.  Very frustrating.

(more…)

The usual suspects within the Decepticon Caucus (McConnell, Cornyn, Thune, Barasso, Crapo, Portman, Blunt, Gardner, Burr, Romney) and Richard Shelby held a press conference to announce the outcome of their DHS border security funding negotiations.
There are massive numbers of Republicans who view Senate Majority Mitch McConnell as a brilliant strategist and staunch supporter of President Trump.  Unfortunately, those voices once again have to reconcile McConnell’s comprehensive failure on a Trump priority.   Yes, McConnell and Shelby successfully negotiated for less border security funding than before the shutdown.

.
Fortunately, POTUS Trump planned for the intentional failure of McConnell and his veto-proof construct. [Rest assured, thankfully, President Trump knows exactly who McConnell is.] President Trump had anticipated the result and dispatched Mulvaney to review the granular DHS, DoD and DoS programs throughout fiscal year 2019 appropriations to assemble secondary funding.
(more…)

According to Rasmussen reporting President Donald Trump is at a nearly two-year high of 52 percent approval. The latest poll shows 52% approve and 47% disapprove of Trump’s job performance.

Despite the scale and scope of media opposition this approval rating is the highest since March 6, 2017 and highlights two recent aspects: (1) The popularity of policy as outlined in the recent State of the Union Address; and (2) The democrats going over-the-top in their opposition to mostly pragmatic proposals.
Additionally, both CBS [poll here] and CNN [see here] reported broad support for President Trump’s policy initiatives as polled immediately after the State of the Union speech.  [Nancy Pelosi, notsomuch]
(more…)

President Trump met with Homeland Security officials and national law enforcement earlier today prior to departing the White House for a speech in El Paso, Texas.
The president paused to discuss the issues surrounding the need for border security. Additionally, President Trump outlined the scale of criminal aliens being held in detention prior to deportation, and gave examples of some of the criminal actions as outlined by the DHS.

(more…)

The democrat political apparatus, supported by Speaker Pelosi, is committed to the removal of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of their agenda.  However, the elimination of ICE is not supported by the majority of Americans, so the democrats are using a stealth maneuver to accomplish their goal.
As part of their position on border security negotiations democrats are trying to insert limits or caps on the number of detainees ICE can hold. Former ICE Director Tom Homan explains how 30,000 criminal aliens would have to be released from detention if Democrats get their way.  WATCH:

“I’ve been saying for almost a year that I don’t think they’re ever going to accomplish the abolish ICE that they’ve been saying they’re going to do. But I’ve been saying what they’re going to do is bankrupt ICE to make them ineffective. They’ll take their money away so they can’t do their job.”
(more…)