Congress has a non partisan research arm and they have come up with something very interesting. They have stated that President Trump can build the wall without congress and without declaring an emergency.
Better yet, Democrats can’t sue to stop it. The Department of Defense can help out with law enforcement in certain circumstances. One of those circumstances is with drug trafficking. The DOD can build walls to make it harder for drug dealers to move their poison into the country. But there is one thing.
They can build walls in the drug corridors but not to prevent people.
CRS, Congress’s in-house research arm, internally published a paper Jan. 10 titled “Can the Department of Defense Build the Border Wall?,” which The Daily Caller News Foundation has obtained. It says (emphasis added):
Another statute that authorizes the Secretary of Defense to assist civilian law enforcement with counterdrug activities may provide some authority for the construction of barriers along the border. 10 U.S.C. § 284 (Section 284) provides that the Secretary of Defense “may provide support for the counterdrug activities or activities to counter transnational organized crime” of any law enforcement agency, including through the “[c]onstruction of roads and fences and installation of lighting to block drug smuggling corridors across international boundaries of the United States.” …
Use of Section 284 would not require a declaration of a national emergency under the NEA. However, the DOD’s Section 284 authority to construct fences appears to extend only to “drug smuggling corridors,” a condition that may limit where DOD could deploy fencing.
“Drug corridors” are not defined in law, according to a top congressional aide.
We’ll just have to wait and see if P)resident Trump takes advantage of this ruling to start building his wall. Let’s hope so.