Washington, Feb 19 (Prensa Latina) The governments of 16 US states are on a war footing against President Donald Trump's decision to declare a national emergency to build a wall on the border with Mexico.

The territories filed a lawsuit at a court in the Californian city of San Francisco to prevent the construction of the wall.

According to Trump, the national emergency allows his Government to allocate several budgetary consignments to fund the wall, although his critics do not agree on that interpretation.

In that regard, the lawsuit considers that Trump lacks the power to divert funds from other departments to build the wall, because it is the Congress that controls the expenditures.

The states that filed the lawsuit are California, Nueva York, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon and Virginia.