Trump signs bill to avert shutdown - but national emergency for Mexico wall funding stays

Donald Trump has signed legislation to avert another government shutdown after announcing a national emergency at the US-Mexico border in an attempt to get funding for his wall.

Speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House, the US president said the wall was needed because "we have an invasion of drugs, invasion of gangs, invasion of people, and it's unacceptable".

Democrats have denied him the $5.7bn (£4.5bn) he says he needs to build the wall, and they have vowed to legally challenge Mr Trump's move.

Hours after the announcement, he signed legislation to provide $333bn (£258bn) to finance several Cabinet agencies until the end of September to prevent part of the government shutting down for the second time this year.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Chuck Schumer, the Senate's top Democrat, called the national emergency an "unlawful declaration over a crisis that does not exist".

They said it "does great violence to our constitution and makes America less safe, stealing from urgently needed defence funds for the security of our military and our nation".

They added: "The president's actions clearly violate the Congress exclusive power of the purse, which our founders enshrined in the constitution.

"The Congress will defend our constitutional authorities in the Congress, in the courts, and in the public, using every remedy available."

The president said he was expecting a lengthy legal challenge over his decision but insisted he would be successful in the Supreme Court.

By declaring the emergency, he will be able to use his executive authority to tap funds from other sources to obtain a total of $8bn to construct the wall.

The White House says he plans to get money from the Treasury and Defence departments, but not cash earmarked for disaster relief.

A senior White House official said the administration had found nearly $7bn to reallocate to the wall, including $600m from a Treasury department forfeiture fund, $2.5bn from a defence department drug interdiction fund and $3.5bn from a military construction budget.

Mr Trump was also expected to sign a bipartisan government spending bill approved by Congress that would prevent another partial federal government shutdown.

Congress has given Mr Trump about $1.4bn for border barriers, well below the $5.7bn he has insisted he needed to build a wall.

He has argued the wall, which was among his key 2016 election pledges, is needed to curb illegal immigrants and illicit drugs coming across the southern border.

This is despite statistics that show illegal immigration there is at a 20-year low and that many drug shipments are likely smuggled through legal ports of entry.

At the White House event, several women holding pictures of family members killed by illegal immigrants watched the president make his Rose Garden speech.

He mentioned the "angel families" as he announced the emergency declaration.

Meanwhile, he also spoke positively about US-UK trade as the 29 March date looms for the UK's expected departure from the EU.

He said: "We have a very good trading relationship with UK and that's just been strengthened further.

"So with the UK we're continuing our trade and we are going to actually be increasing it very substantially as time goes by.

"We expect that the UK will be very, very substantially increased as it relates to trade with the United States. The relationship there also is very good."