The Trump administration says it didn’t have enough money to begin construction on 20 miles of new barrier fencing in California and Arizona because it didn’t receive the projected savings from other border construction projects.
According to Bloomberg News the lack of funding was revealed in court papers filed late Friday by the Center for Biological Diversity. In February, the Center filed a civil lawsuit against President Trump and members of his Cabinet. The organization says any barrier along the southern border would impact wildlife diversity and could naturally eliminate certain animals like the jaguar and other endangered species. In their filing, the Center said "Of the 58 times presidents have previously declared emergencies under the National Emergencies Act, none involved using the emergency powers to fund a policy goal after a president failed to meet that goal through foreign diplomacy (having Mexico pay for the wall) or the congressional appropriations process - Never before has a president used the emergency powers granted to him by Congress in such a manner."
The President was given a small victory last week when the US Supreme Court ruled that his administration could stop illegal immigrants from seeking asylum in the United States if those immigrants traveled here through a 3rd country. The SCOTUS also ruled in July that the President could divert 3.6 billion from the Pentagon’s budget for use in border-related construction projects.
It’s not clear if the new funding will help restart the canceled construction projects in California and Arizona.
Listen to my report here, including comments from California Democratic Congresswoman, and Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi