President Donald Trump declares a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border during remarks about border security in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, February 15, 2019. Carlos Barria | Reuters

President Donald Trump's words are being used against him in a slew of lawsuits challenging his declaration of a national emergency at the southern border. In at least three lawsuits filed in federal court in recent days, lawyers have seized on the president's remark during Friday's press conference announcing the declaration that he "didn't need to" declare a national emergency. In suits brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, Public Citizen and 16 U.S. states, the challengers have argued that the president's comments show that his national emergency declaration is a matter of personal preference or a negotiating tactic — not a true emergency requiring the use of American armed forces, as the White House has claimed.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has said it will file a lawsuit against the administration this week, has featured the president's comment in news releases. The president's remarks on Friday came after a protracted battle with Congress over his demands for billions of dollars in funding for his proposed border wall. The tussle led to a partial government shutdown that stretched through December and January — the longest in American history. The issue appeared to be resolved last week only after the president agreed to sign a spending bill without funding for the wall, while simultaneously declaring a national emergency to bypass Congress and unlock already appropriated Department of Defense funds. "I didn't need to do this. But I'd rather do it much faster," Trump said of the national emergency declaration, speaking from the White House Rose Garden, according to an official transcript. "And I don't have to do it for the election. I've already done a lot of wall, for the election — 2020." The White House, which did not respond to a request for comment, has said that a national emergency declaration is necessary to address the "situation at the southern border." It argues the situation poses a threat to core national security interests and that a wall is needed to stem what it says is a flow of criminal activity from Mexico. Following the declaration, the administration has access to $8.1 billion to build a southwestern border wall, including up to $3.6 billion in DOD funds appropriated for military construction, according to a fact sheet prepared by the administration. But the president's comment, according to lawyers for Public Citizen, "conceded that the situation at the southern border does not require a declaration of national emergency." "Of the 58 times presidents have previously declared emergencies under the National Emergencies Act, none involved using the emergency powers to fund a policy goal after a president failed to meet that goal through foreign diplomacy (having Mexico pay for the wall) or the congressional appropriations process," wrote attorneys for the Center for Biological Diversity, citing the comment. And the coalition of states opposing the declaration wrote that the president, while "explaining his rationale" for the declaration, "candidly admitted that the emergency declaration reflected his personal preference to construct the wall more quickly, rather than an actual urgent need for it to be built immediately."