Trump Administration Sued Over Border Wall Funding
Budget

Trump Administration Sued Over Border Wall Funding

TOM BRENNER

Three groups filed suit against the Trump administration Friday over its plans to use Department of Defense funds to pay for the construction of the wall along the border with Mexico.

The 2020 federal budget, which President Trump signed into law two months ago, includes $1.37 billion for border wall construction, far less than the administration requested. The Pentagon announced earlier this month that it wants to move $3.8 billion from its budget allocation – including hundreds of millions of dollars designated by Congress for the purchase of F-35 stealth jets and C-130 transports, among other items – to what it calls higher priority efforts that are focused on preventing illegal immigration and drug smuggling on the border.

The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition, charges that the administration’s plan to redirect funds violates the Constitution, and will result in environmental damage as well.

“The destruction of cultural sites, Tribal burial grounds, endangered species, protected cacti and water resources shows that Trump will stop at nothing for this wall — not irreplaceable resources nor the Constitution," Sierra Club attorney Gloria Smith in a statement.

TOP READS FROM THE FISCAL TIMES