(KGTV and AP) — California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Xavier Becerra Friday slammed President Trump's national emergency declaration along the U.S.-Mexico border, saying the state is likely to sue over the border wall funding dispute.
Becerra at a joint news conference with Newsom said there is no emergency at the border and Trump doesn't have the authority to make the declaration.
"No one in America is above the law, not even the president of the United States," Becerra said. "The president does not have power to act frivolously."
Friday, President Trump declared a national emergency in order to secure funding toward construction of a wall or barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border. A spending bill signed by the President earlier this week already locks in $1.375 billion for fencing as well.
The President said his order addresses "an invasion of our country with drugs, with human traffickers, with all types of criminals and gangs."
"We don't control our own border," Trump said. "We're going to confront the national security crisis on our southern border and we're going to do it -- one way or the other we have to do it."
RELATED: President Trump declares national emergency to pave way for US-Mexico border security upgrades
The announcement was immediately met with resistance from members of Congress.
Becerra and Newsom challenged the notion that there was a real emergency. Becerra said past presidents used such declarations after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Iran hostage crisis in 1979.
Newsom said the wall is a "monument to stupidity" that would not make the country safer.
California has repeatedly challenged Trump in court. Becerra has filed at least 45 lawsuits against the administration.
Gov. Newsom tweeted following the emergency order by the President, calling the order a manufactured crisis "in order to seize power."
President Trump is manufacturing a crisis and declaring a made-up “national emergency” in order to seize power. This “emergency” is a national disgrace -- and the blame lays solely at the feet of the President.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) February 15, 2019
Our message to the White House is simple: CA will see you in court.
Since coming into state office, Gov. Newsom has sparred with the Trump Administration on border issues in California.
Earlier this week, Gov. Newsom ordered several hundred National Guard troops to withdraw from the southern border, where they have been assisting border officials in various tasks. The governor will reassign about 100 troops to the state's wildfire preparation efforts instead, and expand the guard's counterdrug task force program, according to the Associated Press.
About 100 troops will remain at the border as part of the state's agreement with the federal government to focus on transnational crimes, including drug and gun smuggling.
