‘We are committed to keeping our borders secure, and we will finish the wall…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) President Donald Trump is reallocating an additional $7.2 billion in funds from the Pentagon to the construction of a southern border wall.
This is five times more than the funding Congress authorized in the 2020 budget, according to The Washington Post.
But a federal appeals court ruled last week that this is completely legal, and allowed the Trump administration to move forward.
The Trump administration estimates that this additional funding will allow the government to build nearly 885 miles of new fencing by 2022, which is 300 miles more than what Trump originally promised voters.
More than 100 miles of new barriers have been constructed already, but construction continues to be disrupted by lawsuits filed against the administration.
The Supreme Court ruled last year that the Trump administration has the legal authority to reallocate military funds, and the 5th Circuit appeals court upheld this decision in a ruling last week, which overturned an El Paso court’s attempt to block the construction of the border wall.
“This is a victory for the rule of law,” White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement last week. “We are committed to keeping our borders secure, and we will finish the wall.”
Breaking News: The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals just reversed a lower court decision & gave us the go ahead to build one of the largest sections of the desperately needed Southern Border Wall, Four Billion Dollars. Entire Wall is under construction or getting ready to start!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2020
Chad Wolf, acting director of homeland security, promised voters last week that the administration had not fallen behind on the border wall’s construction.
“I can tell you that we remain confident that we are on track to 400, 450 miles that are either completed or under construction by the end of 2020,” he said at an event marking the completion of the 100th mile of barrier in Yuma, Ariz.