President Donald Trump declared a national state of emergency on the 15, the emergency being the Mexican-American border wall. The wall, which has been a campaign promise of Trump’s since running for president, has faced several  difficulties regarding the funds needed to construct it.

Faced with the inability to gain the five billion dollars needed to build the wall, the government was shut down for 35 days.

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Since then, Trump has devoted himself to making the border wall into a reality. However, many feel that declaring a national emergency was not the right way to go about it. While the president doesn’t necessarily need to meet certain criteria to declare an emergency, he himself has admitted that the declaration was not a necessary measure. “I didn’t need to do this,” he stated, according to the Associated Press. Declaring the emergency would allow him to “do it [build  the wall] much faster,” however, so he chose to go through with it.

By declaring a national emergency, Trump will be able to access billions of dollars that he can divert to the wall’s  construction. Some have complained that the declaration is an abuse of power. Others worry that the event may set a precedent that will lead to future abuses of the operation.

Lauryn Sanchez felt that the wall was a good idea at first, but “the extent that he’s doing it to I feel is unnecessary.” Sanchez feels that the government shutdown “was pretty dumb because it was for so long.”

The emergency status can be terminated under the national Emergencies Act, but whether that will happen remains unknown.