President Donald Trump has suggested several times on declaring a national emergency at the border wall. Recently, President Trump had even told reporters that there was a “good chance” he would declare one. All of this would be in an effort to help him build his $5.7 million dollar wall along the southern border. Democrats have been refusing to fund the production of this wall, which has resulted in President Trump taking such drastic measures.

Recently in an interview, in an attempt to discredit Democrat viewpoints and validate them as his own, Trump said,”I think the Democrats don’t want border security and then I hear them talking about the fact that walls are immoral and walls don’t work. They know they work.”

This emergency declaration could help the Trump administration free up billions of dollars in order to build this wall, but it will most likely involve legal challenges, which could redefine the way in which the President would be able to utilize emergency powers in the future. A bipartisan group of lawyers is frantically working to produce a deal before the February 15th deadline. February 15th is when temporary spending bills, which fund around one-third of the federal government, expire. If no agreement surrounding the wall can be constructed by then, Donald Trump has threatened that he will shut the government down again, or declare a national emergency to get the money he needs to fund the wall. 

Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker, is working with Homeland Security Committee to form a compromise facing border security. On Thursday, Pelosi said in an interview that instead of funding the wall, she would compromise by funding barrier fencing.

On Tuesday night, in President Trump’s State of the Union Speech, he promised to build his proposed border wall, but stopped short of declaring a national emergency, when he called for refusing to accept what he referred to as the politics of “resistance”. Trump believes that in calling the first national emergency, many people were able to see exactly what the issue was. However, since so much information is lacking on the subject, many people are still unsure of what to think.

Many Americans still remain skeptical as to if there is actually a crisis at the border, and many don’t believe there is even a crisis at all. As a compromise is being formulated by the February 15th deadline, many questions are still left unanswered. Where exactly would the 5.7 million dollars Trump “needs” end up? Customs and Border Protection has yet to reveal where it would go and the reasoning behind it all. Finally, would this border accomplish what President Trump said it would? Even though he says that it would limit the number of drugs and human trafficking that takes place, Customs and Border Protection has no proof of these claims. With insufficient knowledge, it is difficult for many Americans to make informed an informed decision on the topic, and are left to agree with what their party is advocating for, causing such a tense split among party lines.