On Saturday, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to praise two spending packages he signed the night before that included funding for the construction of the U.S. southern border wall. Although the President felt “proud” for signing the National Defense Authorization Act, he failed to secure the $5 billion he had initially requested from Congress. Instead, the bill will keep funding for the border wall to $1.37 billion, the same amount it gave the White House last fiscal year.
President Trump’s efforts at increasing funding for his border wall have reached numerous impasses. On December 10, District Court Judge David Briones blocked the Trump administration’s plan to pay for the project by diverting $3.6 billion allocated to military funds. Judge Briones considered the administration’s attempt to divert military funds through the use of an emergency proclamation was unlawful. The ruling affects roughly one-third of the $10 billion the administration had budgeted for the wall.
Construction of the border wall has also slowed down in part because much of the land along theU.S.-Mexico border in Texas is privately held or environmentally sensitive. However, the administration is beginning to pick up the pace. The Department of Justice has filed three lawsuits this month and plans to file more petitions to take private land through its eminent domain powers.
As it currently stands, the Trump administration has only built 93 miles of the 450 miles thePresident promised to build by 2021. And according to Mark Morgan, the acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, “it’s hard right now to say whether we’re still going to meet that goal.” As we’ve said at Global Americans before, “the wall is not only a terrible idea; it’s a terrible investment.”
