Democrats are railing against President Trump's national emergency declaration authorizing the building of additional wall along our southern border.  The passage of drugs, children, sex slaves, gangs, criminals, and asylum- and prosperity-seeking aliens across our border is "a manufactured crisis!" they cry in unison, and they charge the President with "overreaching."

Some add that an emergency implies urgency, yet Trump has done nothing for two years, therefore this is cannot be an emergency.

The prevailing law, the National Emergencies Act of 1976, doesn't define "emergency," so it's pretty much whatever a president says it is.

For guidance, we might look to what previous presidents have identified as national emergencies.  Hurricane Katrina (2005) and the specter of a swine flu epidemic (2009) were emergencies.  Those declarations ended after the dangers had passed.  Many don't.

Twenty-eight emergencies currently remain in effect (they would lapse after a year without presidential renewal, which happens, apparently, over and over).  Some reflect familiar perils: a declaration of national emergency against terrorism after 9/11, against North Korea for nuclear proliferation in 2008, and against China for cyberattacks in 2015.  But many declarations remain in force for crises we can scarcely remember.  Here are a few.

Currently, the U.S. is in a declared state of national emergency with Macedonia (since 2001), Zimbabwe (2003), Syria (2004), Belarus (2006), Democratic Republic of Congo (2006), Lebanon (2010), Somalia (2010), Yemen (2011), South Sudan (2014), Central African Republic (2014), Venezuela (2015), and Burundi (2015).

This must come as a surprise to most Americans.  In what ways are Macedonia and Zimbabwe and Burundi currently threatening us?  How much money have we spent and how many American lives have we lost in those countries?  And are those foreign problems susceptible to a simple, straightforward solution, like a border wall?

The situation on our southern border is a current, real, and national emergency.  A wall will not only solve many of our border problems, but also prevent future presidents from opening the border through lax enforcement.  Lastly, once the wall is completed, the emergency will be over, and this declaration can be allowed to lapse — unlike our ongoing national emergencies in Macedonia and Zimbabwe and Burundi.