Trump previously tried to pressure Congress into backing his idea by refusing to sign off on budgets for swathes of the federal government, leading to a five-week shutdown of some 800,000 government jobs. "It's that alternative: It's national emergency".
"Any Republican who denies the president the ability to act as commander-in-chief, you're going to create a real problem within the party", Graham said.
"One thing you will see is that the chamber is full and the president is surrounded by women, by people of colour, by individuals who have really been hurt by this president and numerous actions that he has taken", Jayapal said.
"She can keep playing her games, but we will win".
"Democrats can call it a fence, the president can call it a wall and then we can call it a day, which I think is one way of skinning the cat", said Cornyn, who is a close adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. "That's what it is, that's what they're doing, it's awful?" He took to Twitter Sunday, saying congressional Democrats are doing nothing to improve border security. Instead, she said funding for additional technology and more ports of entry are "part of the negotiation". His speech sought to shore up Republican support that had eroded slightly during the recent government shutdown and previewed a fresh defence against Democrats as they ready a round of investigations into every aspect of his administration. The committee, which is tasked with negotiating a compromise on border security, met for the first time last week.
The occasion marks Trump's first address to the Democrat-controlled House chamber and follows a contentious partisan battle over his proposed border wall that resulted in the longest government shutdown in American history.
Wary of publicly highlighting those intraparty divisions, Trump made no mention of an emergency declaration in his remarks, though he did offer a lengthy defense of his call for a border wall.
Representative Pramila Jayapal said on Monday she would invite climate scientist Lisa Graumlich, dean of the College of the Environment at the University of Washington, to underscore the climate change issue. "It would be the last resort after Congress has completed its work".
"I am asking you to defend our very unsafe southern border out of love and devotion to our fellow citizens and to our country", he said, painting a dark and foreboding picture of the risks posed to Americans by illegal immigration.
In retaliation, President Trump grounded the Air Force plane that Pelosi and other lawmakers planned to take to review wartime conditions in Afghanistan.
The U.S. Constitution states that the president "shall form time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient".
Section 2803 authorizes the president to direct the Department of Defense to "carry out a military construction project not otherwise authorized by law" for national-security reasons or protection of health, safety, or environmental quality.
The president also defended his decisions to withdraw USA troops from Syria and Afghanistan over the opposition from national security officials and many Republican lawmakers.
According to the report, the president can invoke these powers without declaring a national emergency.
Justin Bogie, senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, told Xinhua that Trump "has fairly broad power to do so, though it would nearly certainly be challenged in the court system".
