President Donald Trump said Friday there was a “good chance” of declaring a State of Emergency on the Southern border, shortly after announcing his short-term surrender to Democrats on the partial government shutdown fight.
“I think we have a good chance,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We’ll work with the Democrats and negotiate and if we can’t do that, then obviously we’ll do the emergency because that’s what it is. It’s a national emergency.”
Declaring a national emergency would allow the president to shift funding to secure the border without Congress, although it would likely be challenged in court.
The president made his remarks during a White House event with Hispanic pastors on Friday to discuss the importance of security on the Southern border.
Earlier Friday, Trump specified that he would reopen the government for three weeks to give negotiators more time to work out a border security compromise. A bipartisan committee will work together with the Department of Homeland Security to come up with a border security package for the president to sign.
The president was still adamant about funding more physical barriers on the border.
“If we don’t have that wall and we don’t have a very powerful barrier, it’s all just a waste of time,” he wrote. “It can’t work. Can’t work. So we’ll get it.”