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Austin, TX – In an opinion piece published by the Houston Chronicle opinion editor Michael A. Lindenberger, he notes that inaction is now set to define Sen. John Cornyn’s legacy. Sen. Cornyn has now confirmed that he will vote “no” on a resolution that would cancel President Trump’s emergency declaration to build a wall, this despite Sen. Cornyn expressing “concerns” about the process.
America’s Voice has a long history of calling out Sen. Cornyn on immigration, and even called him the biggest hypocrite in Congress on the issue.
Mario Carrillo, Texas State Director for America’s Voice issued the following statement:
This is more of the same from Sen. Cornyn. He’s always talked up a big game, especially on immigration, and on the need to do right by the American people, but once again, his tactic is to do nothing. Not even the hundreds of Texas families who are set to forcibly lose their land to build Trump’s border wall is enough to pressure Sen. Cornyn to actually take action. It’s unfortunate that the senator is more frightened of what President Trump might say about him on Twitter than what might happen to Texas landowners, citizens, and immigrants if Sen. Cornyn defends Texas and the Constitution. He fully understands that a wall won’t solve the humanitarian crisis at our border, but is content to allow Donald Trump to trample on precedent just to score political points. Texans should expect better from their elected officials.
Below is an excerpt from the Houston Chronicle editorial from Linderberger. Find the story in its entirety here.
Texas’ senior senator doesn’t like the way President Trump has used the power to declare a national emergency to get his border wall built. Is the senator going to do anything about it? No, he isn’t.
That, in a nutshell, is the tragedy of U.S. Sen. John Cornyn as he prepares to battle his way to another term.
On Wednesday, Cornyn told Texas reporters he would vote against a resolution seeking to cancel Trump’s declaration of a national emergency. The resolution passed the House earlier this week, and Cornyn told Texas reporters this week it will likely pass the Senate.
“This is obviously no one’s first choice,” Cornyn said of the president’s use of emergency powers granted by Congress to the presidency in 1976. “I’ve expressed some concerns … about the precedent this would set,” Cornyn said in a chat with Texas reporters, before adding a little later: “Is this the best way for Congress and the White House to deal with situations like this? I would say no.”
That’s an understatement of course. Congress debated fiercely whether to add funding for a border wall last month. Lawmakers decided not to. Now Trump is moving to do it anyway by tapping emergency presidential powers granted by Congress decades ago to confront national emergencies.
So why won’t Cornyn support the resolution?
The senator explained why during Wednesday’s phone chat with reporters, and his office shared with me a transcript of his exchange with Chronicle Washington correspondent Kevin Diaz. As I read his comments, they boil down to a single-word rationale: Caution.
