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A2 US NEWS
Thursday 4 July 2019

Appeals court: Trump can’t use Pentagon cash for border wall

By ELLIOT SPAGAT A freeze imposed by U.S. nearly $1.4 billion on bar-
Associated Press District Judge Haywood riers in Texas’ Rio Grande
SAN DIEGO (AP) — An ap- Gilliam Jr. of Oakland in Valley, the busiest corridor
peals court on Wednes- May prevented work on for illegal crossings, which
day upheld a freeze on two Pentagon-funded wall was well below the $5.7 bil-
Pentagon money to build contracts — one spanning lion the president request-
a border wall with Mexico, 46 miles (74 kilometers) in ed.
casting doubt on President New Mexico and another Trump grudgingly ac-
Donald Trump’s ability to covering 5 miles (8 kilome- cepted the money but de-
make good on a signature ters) in Yuma, Arizona. clared the emergency to
campaign promise before While the order applied siphon money from other
the 2020 election. only to those first-in-line government accounts,
A divided three-judge projects, Gilliam made finding up to $8.1 billion for
panel of the 9th U.S. Cir- clear that he felt the Amer- wall construction. The mon-
cuit Court of Appeals in ican Civil Liberties Union ey includes $3.6 billion from
San Francisco agreed with President Donald Trump talks during a signing ceremony in the and other groups were military construction funds,
a lower court ruling that Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Monday, July likely to prevail at trial in $2.5 billion from Defense
prevented the government 1, 2019, with Vice President Mike Pence, left, and Secretary of their argument that the Department counterdrug
from tapping Defense De- Health and Human Services Alex Azar. president was ignoring activities and $600 million
partment counterdrug Associated Press Congress’ wishes by divert- from the Treasury Depart-
money to build high-priority government shutdown in free billions of dollars from ing Defense Department ment’s asset forfeiture fund.
sections of wall in Arizona February after Congress the Pentagon. money. Acting Defense Secretary
and New Mexico. gave him far less than he The case may still be con- “Congress’s ‘absolute’ Mark Esper has yet to ap-
The decision is a setback wanted. He then declared sidered, but the adminis- control over federal ex- prove transferring the mili-
for Trump’s ambitious a national emergency that tration cannot build during penditures — even when tary construction funds. The
plans. He ended a 35-day the White House said would the legal challenge. that control may frustrate Treasury Department funds
the desires of the Executive have so far survived legal
Branch regarding initiatives challenges.
it views as important — is The president’s adversaries
not a bug in our constitu- say the emergency dec-
tional system. It is a feature laration was an illegal at-
of that system, and an es- tempt to ignore Congress.
sential one,” the judge The ACLU sued on behalf
wrote. of the Sierra Club and the
Gilliam went a step further Southern Border Communi-
Friday by ruling definitively ties Coalition.
that the administration The administration said the
couldn’t use Pentagon U.S. needed emergency
counterdrug money for the protection to fight drug
two projects covered in his smuggling. Its arguments
May order or to replace 63 did not mention illegal im-
miles (101 kilometers) in the migration or unprecedent-
Border Patrol’s Tucson, Ari- ed numbers of Central
zona, sector and 15 miles American families seeking
(24 kilometers) in its El Cen- asylum at the U.S. border,
tro, California, sector. which have dominated
Trump immediately vowed public attention in recent
to appeal. months.
At stake is billions of dollars Justice Department at-
that would allow Trump to torneys argued that the
make progress on a major freeze on Pentagon funds
2016 campaign promise showed a “fundamental
heading into his race for a misunderstanding of the
second term. federal appropriations pro-
Trump declared a national cess.”
emergency after losing a “The real separation-of-
fight with the Democratic- powers concern is the dis-
led House that led to the trict court’s intrusion into
35-day shutdown. Con- the budgeting process,”
gress agreed to spend they wrote.q