Set the clock back one year and the United\nStates was dealing with a different emergency. The spring of 2019 saw\nunprecedented surges of illegal aliens pouring across our southern border, most\nof them seeking to take advantage of loopholes in our asylum laws and\njudicially imposed constraints on detention of families with children and\nunaccompanied minors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That emergency posed its own set of problems\nand dangers, in addition to the abuse of our laws and policies. The surge\noverwhelmed our capacity to detain and\/or adequately vet people who were being\nreleased by the thousands each day into American communities. These wholesale\nreleases posed threats to public safety, public services and, yes, public\nhealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unlike the 2020 COVID-19 crisis, Congress did not appropriate additional funds to contain last year\u2019s border crisis. Some additional money was legitimately earmarked to address the human needs of the people – many of them children – who were streaming across the border. However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for political reasons, made a point of excluding funding<\/a> for additional border fencing or detention facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to congressional obstruction and gridlock in the face of a growing border crisis, President Trump declared a national emergency<\/a>. Under that proclamation, some funding was diverted from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which, like our border and immigration enforcement agencies, is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The thing about emergencies is that they have\nto be dealt with now. They cannot wait for Congress to get its act together.\nMoving money around within agencies under DHS\u2019s umbrella is less than ideal,\nbut certainly a legitimate response on the part of the Executive Branch.\nMoreover, tapping funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency was\nprobably one of the most logical places to find money to manage a federal\nemergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n