Trump barred from using Defence funds for The Wall
A Federal Judge from Northern District of California – Haywood Gilliam has barred the President of United States (U.S.) – Donald Trump from using the Defense Department Funds to build parts of his U.S. – Mexico border wall.
A 56-page ruling came after a lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of the plaintiffs – the Sierra Club and Southern Border Communities Coalition.
The injunction clearly prohibits the Administration from starting work at 2 sites where contracts have been awarded, in Arizona and Texas. The concerned parties have been asked to appear again before the U.S. District Judge on June 5, 2019 to take the case further.
The lawyer representing Trump’s Administration urged that since Congress has not explicitly told Trump not to divert the funds from the 2019 budget, he was entitled to use his Presidential powers to reallocate that money. However, their argument was rejected by Judge Gilliam.
Judge Gilliam ordered, “The position that when Congress declines the Executive’s request to appropriate funds, the Executive nonetheless may simply find a way to spend those funds ‘without Congress’ does not square with fundamental separation of powers principles dating back to the earliest days of our Republic. Because the Court has found that Plaintiffs are likely to show that Defendants’ actions exceeded their statutory authority, and that irreparable harm will result from those actions, a preliminary injunction must issue pending a resolution of the merits of the case.”
Reacting on the orders, a Staff Member of ACLU – Dror Ladin said, “This order is a win for our system of checks and balances, the rule of law, and border communities. The court blocked all the wall projects currently slated for immediate construction. If the administration begins illegally diverting additional military funds, we’ll be back in court to block that as well.”
Earlier on March 25, 2019, the Defense Department had transferred U.S. $ 1 billion to the Army Corps of Engineers. Post this, Trump’s Administration awarded its first contract for construction of wall at Yuma in Arizona, on April 9, 2019. But the contract was challenged by the Government Accountability Office within 10 days and was later scrapped on May 4, 2019.
The concerned funds are primarily coming from drug interdiction and enforcement activities. Court records show that the role of the military in construction of the wall is still under discussion. Besides, in the next hearing, Judge Gilliam may also look into the legality of the funding for each project.
For the records, Trump had declared national emergency in February 2019 to unlock billions of dollars in Federal Funds to build his promise wall. It is to be noted that Trump declared the emergency despite signing the spending bill from Congress which allocated U.S. $ 1.375 billion for constructing 55 miles of the wall, which is U.S. $ 5.7 billion less than what Trump had demanded.
Trump is very much perturbed about the wall as there has been a significant rise in number of migrants entering U.S. More than 1,09,000 people have tried to cross in April 2019, with 90% skirting the official ports of entry.
