NATIONWIDE — Sixteen states filed a lawsuit on Monday night against President Donald Trump's national emergency declaration on border security.
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The lawsuit claims the declaration is unconstitutional and diverts funds from other necessary programs and what they call real emergencies.
On Friday, Trump announced he was declaring a national emergency to secure funding for a border wall he has pushed for since the campaign trail.
"I'm going to be signing a national emergency. We're talking about an invasion of our country with drugs, with human traffickers, with all types of criminals and gangs," Trump had said.
Critics of Trump's emergency declaration are preparing to challenge it in court and Democrats along with some Republicans are slamming his decision. Some lawmakers call his move as a violation of the Constitution.
The Florida delegation is split, and it is not all along party lines. There is concern the declaration is a violation of the constitution, and some prefer the President use alternatives to secure the money for the wall.
"He does have discretionary funds — from I've heard, about $1 billion that he has, discretionary funds that he can use without declaring a state of emergency," said Rep. Ross Spano (R-Florida, 15th District).
The president's announcement Friday pulls together roughly $8 billion for his border wall. Nearly $1.4 billion comes from the bipartisan spending bill. With the emergency declaration, another $3.5 billion from the Pentagon construction budget.
And on Monday night, 16 states joined together to file a lawsuit against the president's declaration.
Joining California in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Virginia.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra hope to block the emergency order and construction of the wall.
Florida is not one of the states involved.
All of the states that joined together have Democratic attorneys general.
Trump tweeted his reaction on Tuesday morning about the lawsuit.
As I predicted, 16 cities, led mostly by Open Border Democrats and the Radical Left, have filed a lawsuit in, of course, the 9th Circuit! California, the state that has wasted billions of dollars on their out of control Fast Train, with no hope of completion, seems in charge!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2019
The Associated Press contributed to this story.