Governor, Attorney General Announce New Mexico Will Sue President over ‘Emergency’ Declaration

In the wake of President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency Friday in the service of his demand for a border wall, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and Attorney General Hector Balderas announced the state will file suit against President Donald J. Trump over his inappropriate and overreaching declaration of a “national emergency.”

This declaration, which the state’s action would seek to block, diverts funds crucial to the protection of New Mexicans away from their proper channels and puts New Mexico’s economy and people at risk.

“The president’s absurd and dangerous declaration, a bald-faced end run around Congress and the basic tenets of our nation’s system of governance, will not stand,” Gov. Lujan Grisham said. “He himself, as was on display for a national television audience last week, freely acknowledged his declaration did not need to be made. The president, plainly desperate, is attempting to set an autocratic precedent that has no absolutely no place in our country. As I have said, his futile demand for a border wall does nothing to address the legitimate humanitarian and public safety concerns at the border, and his continued fear-mongering is actively harmful, as would be his wall. There is zero real-world basis for an emergency declaration, and there will be no wall.”

“As Attorney General of a border state, I am appalled that President Trump would bypass the rule of law, manufacture an ‘emergency,’ and weaken our national defense and readiness for a potential terrorist attack or catastrophic natural disaster,” said Attorney General Balderas. “I stand ready to join with our state partners to file against and prevent this abhorrent misuse of executive power.”