When Donald Trump ran for President of the United States back in 2016, one of his most emphasized points of interest was the building of a wall between the border of the United States and Mexico in order to keep illegal immigration from rising on the southern border. Trump even claimed that Mexico was going to pay for the said wall.
Funds for the wall, however, appears to be coming from within our borders. In late 2018, Washington shutdown over this battle for border wall funding. After 35 days, the longest shutdown in U.S. history, they decided to reach into military funds instead of demanding money from the government.
In February of 2019, Trump declared a state of national emergency at the border. Around that time, he diverted funds from military projects across the country, including construction in Texas that, according to the Texas Tribune, would have covered 60 miles in Laredo and El Paso. Around $3.6 billion was diverted from these projects to the border wall, which the Texas Tribune also reports are growing by two miles a day due to a push for sped up construction.
The showdown between Trump and his opposition has spanned many months and has traveled through circuit courts around the country. Multiple activist groups have made cases against the Trump administration’s pulling of military funding for the border wall since 2019, including the Sierra Club, who specifically targeted Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper when he tapped into new funding streams for $2.5 billion. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has also been issuing multiple challenges against Trump, claiming in a statement that “[the people] deserve to know that their hard-earned dollars are going where Congress intended — to benefit them and their communities.”
Since then, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled, 2 to 1, that Trump’s transfer of the money was an illegal overreach of executive authority. The same court ruled that Trump will not be allowed to use the money that he diverted. Gloria Smith, an attorney of the Sierra Club, called the ruling “monumental.”
That being said, the construction has not stopped at the wall. More and more of the border is being constructed on, with work being pushed and sped up as Nov. 3 approaches. Trump continues to speak on the wall at his events. At a rally in Sanford, Florida this past Monday, Trump told the crowd that “Mexico is paying. . .they hate to say it: Mexico is paying for it.” CNN has reported this statement as false, as the funds from the wall mostly come from American taxpayer dollars.
Although the border wall seems like the smallest issue in 2020, folks are still keeping their eyes peeled for news as more information comes in day after day. The initial decision by the Court of Appeals was made in June, but the repercussions of the ruling are making waves in October. With the election approaching by the week, many things may muddle the waters of the decision for the next president of the United States.
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