Thomas Breen photo
Protesters rally against Trump’s national emergency order on Monday at noon.
There is a national emergency at the border.
But it’s not caused by illegal immigration. It’s caused by a president circumventing Congress to spend billions of public dollars on an unnecessary wall.
So argued three dozen protesters gathered at the corner of Orange Street and Elm Street downtown on Monday to deliver that message outside of U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s office.
Organized in part and supported by the national advocacy organization MoveOn, the protest was one of hundreds that took place at noon in cities and towns throughout the country in opposition to President Donald Trump’s declaration Friday of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Outside Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro’s office.
After failing to convince Congress to grant him $5.6 billion to build a wall at the country’s southern border, Trump declared the national emergency on Friday in an attempt to access up to $8 billion instead, much of which would be redirected from previously approved military construction projects.
The New Haven and New Haven-area protesters who gathered, rallied, and cheered “Stand up to Trump” and “Trump nyet, Trump nyet” amidst flurries of snow on Monday disagreed with the president as to the source of the national emergency.
“Building the wall is not a national emergency,” said New Havener Do Walker, “but responding to Trump is a national emergency.”
Jen Vickery (center).
Some of the protesters who showed up on Monday wanted their congressperson to hear citizens’ concerns about Trump’s fitness to continue as president considering the seemingly irrational, prejudice-inspired decision to build a wall at a time when undocumented Hispanic immigration is at a decade low.
“We would like Congress to start impeachment,” said Jen Vickery, one of the local organizers of the protest. She called Trump and the national emergency order he issued an “international disgrace.”
SEIU’s Rick Melita.
Walker agreed that Congress needs to step up its resistance to Trump, and consider starting the process of impeachment. He listed the Trump campaign’s potential collusion with the Russian government to sway the 2016 presidential election, as well as a series of suspicious money transfers related to Trump’s former plans to build a tower in Moscow.
“This could be democracy’s finest hour,” he said, “or it could be democracy’s demise.”
Do Walker.
Some, like the SEIU State Council Executive Director Rick Melita, came out to voice concerns about the Trump administration, but not necessarily to call for impeachment. He said his union is very much concerned about immigrant rights and about lawlessness in Washington D.C, and that his union stands behind DeLauro’s liberal record and opposition to Trump.
When asked if he wants to see Trump impeached, he said, “I want to see him gone, by whatever methodology possible.”
Jennifer Huebner, Susan Craig, and Peter Craig.
Some said they do not want to see impeachment, yet, though they do want to see DeLauro and the rest of Congress reverse Trump’s emergency order, and then override his veto if Trump tries to follow through on building the wall.
“We don’t want funds derailed from significant projects for the military,” said Branford resident Susan Craig.
“We strongly support the idea that this is not a national emergency,” her husband Peter said about the alleged illegal immigration crisis that Trump has cited for why he wants to build the wall.
Jennifer Huebner, who taught world and U.S. history in the New Haven Public Schools for 26 years, said that the President’s Day protest is a fitting tribute to this country’s history of democracy, which she believes Trump and his national emergency order are threatening.
“That’s our national emergency,” she said about protecting democracy and opposing Trump.
Preaching to the Choir Notes: