Several states to join California lawsuit against Trump’s border emergency declaration

Several states will reportedly be joining a lawsuit California is preparing to file against the Trump administration over the president’s move to declare a national emergency to get funding for his proposed border wall. 

The states include New Mexico, Oregon, Minnesota, New Jersey, Hawaii and Connecticut, according to CBS News. A spokesperson for Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D) told KDVR, a local news affiliate, that Colorado would also be joining the suit. 

{mosads}California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) have already announced plans to sue President Trump over the emergency declaration. 

Becerra said Sunday that a lawsuit from the state was imminent. 

“We are prepared,” Becerra said on ABC’s “This Week.” “We knew something like this might happen. … We are ready to go.”

Trump on Friday declared a national emergency to allocate nearly $8 billion for construction of his long-sought border wall. The president made the announcement from the Rose Garden as he agreed to sign a spending bill that did not include his request for $5.7 billion in funds to construct a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Becerra said that the state is confident it has the legal grounds to challenge Trump’s executive action. 

“We’re confident there are at least 8 billion ways that we can prove harm,” he said. “It’s become clear that this is not an emergency, not only because no one believes it is, but because Donald Trump himself has said it’s not.”

Newsom said in a statement last week that Trump was “manufacturing a crisis and declaring a made-up ‘national emergency’ in order to seize power and subvert the constitution.”

“Our message back to the White House is simple and clear: California will see you in court,” he said.