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Nessel joins 15 other states in suit over national emergency

February 19, 2019
<p>Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel smiles during the State of the State address on Feb. 12, 2019 at the Capitol in Lansing.</p>

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel smiles during the State of the State address on Feb. 12, 2019 at the Capitol in Lansing.

Photo by Sylvia Jarrus | The State News

Attorney General Dana Nessel has aligned Michigan with 15 other states seeking an injunction against President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency related to border wall funding. 

The lawsuit aims to “protect revenue, natural resources and economic interests from Trump’s flagrant disregard of fundamental separation of powers,” according to a press release.

Nessel called the president’s move a “manufactured crisis.”

The funds used to build the wall would be redirected from federal money that would otherwise go to the states. The funding loss would affect the Michigan National Guard in particular, according to the press release.

“This fake emergency is a publicity stunt that will raid our federal funding and cost us millions,” Nessel said in the press release. “We cannot, in good conscience, stand by while our president seeks to undermine our own efforts to keep our residents safe and our military strong.”

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra led the lawsuit, who was also joined by Nessel and 14 other attorneys general including, Illinois's and Minnesota's.

Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Michigan, gave a statement decrying the President's emergency issuance. Slotkin voted to support a bipartisan border security funding deal Thursday as Congress aimed to avoid another federal government shutdown.

“A national emergency should be used in only the most dire circumstances, not simply to bypass our democratic system when you don’t like the bipartisan deal that was struck,” Slotkin said. “Likewise, because of that experience at the Pentagon — and as an Army wife and step-mom — I believe that diverting funds from military construction hurts our men and women in uniform.”

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