Pentagon Announces Plan to Shift $3.6 Billion to Build Border Wall

by Neil Munro  |  3 Sep 2019

U.S. / Mexico Border (public domain)

The Pentagon has told Congress that it will build 11 sections of the southern border wall with $3.6 billion in funds allocated by Congress to other construction projects.

“On February 15, 2019, the President issued a proclamation declaring that a national emergency exists along the southern border of the United States,” Secretary of Defense Mark Esper wrote to Congress. He continued:

I have authorized and directed the Acting Secretary of the Army to undertake these 11 projects expeditiously, and, as authorized by Section 2808 [of the National Emergencies Act], to do so without regard to any other provision of law that may impede the expeditious construction of such projects in response to the national emergency. A description of and the estimated cost for each project, including the cost of any associated real estate actions, can be found in the enclosure.

The letter does not describe the planned projects or the miles of extra wall. The announcement implements President Donald Trump’s earlier order to move the funds following Congress’s 2019 refusal to fund his 2016 campaign promise.

Democrats protested the extra funding for the wall, which will help curb the trafficking of drugs and illegal migrants into American communities.

“It is a slap in the face to the members of the Armed Forces who serve our country that @realDonaldTrump is willing to cannibalize already allocated military funding to boost his own ego, and for a wall he promised Mexico would pay to build,” said in a tweet from Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.

A statement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office said:

The Administration’s irresponsible decision to transfer funds from appropriated U.S. military construction makes America less safe and dishonors the Constitution. The President is negating the Constitution’s most fundamental principle, the separation of powers, by assaulting our Congressional “power of the purse,” and is undermining the oath of office we take to protect and defend the Constitution and the American people.

Canceling military construction projects at home and abroad will undermine our national security and the quality of life and morale of our troops, making America less secure.

The President says that he is building the wall for national security reasons, but America should instead address the root causes of migration in the countries of origin. As our bipartisan Congressional delegation saw firsthand last month in the Northern Triangle countries of Central America, we should be strengthening U.S. initiatives. Yet, the Administration has decided to move critical funding from effective and proven counternarcotics and stability and security initiatives to build an ineffective, wasteful wall. This senseless decision will only worsen the underlying causes of migration.

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