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The US Defense Department is shifting another $3.8 billion from procurement and other operations towards paying for a wall on the US-Mexican border, official documents sent to the US Congress showed Thursday.
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The move took to $9.9 billion the total the Pentagon has been forced by President Donald Trump to reallocate to the barrier, after Congress repeatedly blocked funding.
The president declared a national emergency last year to be able to draw federal budget funds already allocated to other needs for the wall, which aims to deter migrants from entering the country illegally.
In January an appeals court backed Trumps diversion of already-purposed federal budget funds to the project, removing a stay on spending set by a lower court after opponents filed suit.
Multiple courts have said it is illegal for Trump to pillage military funds for his xenophobic border wall. Not one court has given his unlawful power grab a stamp of approval.
Well be back in court to block these additional, unauthorized transfers. https://t.co/2a6FXsouaV
— ACLU (@ACLU) February 13, 2020
The Pentagon told Congress it was transferring the $3.8 billion to “counter-drug activities” on the border in support of the Department of Homeland Security.
The money was to be culled from various programs for buying tactical vehicles for the Army National Guard, vessels for the Navy, and combat and transport aircraft for the Navy and Air Force.
Trump promised to build the wall along most of the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) US-Mexico border—paid for by Mexico—during his 2016 presidential campaign.
After he was elected however he sought some $25 billion from Congress but was repeatedly turned back amid opposition to his harsh stance against undocumented migrants already living in the country.
