{"id":29779,"date":"2019-12-11T04:57:49","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T04:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/12\/11\/judge-halts-36-billion-diverted-from-military-construction-projects-for-border-wall\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T11:42:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T11:42:48","slug":"judge-halts-36-billion-diverted-from-military-construction-projects-for-border-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/federal-oversight\/doj-fbi\/2019\/12\/11\/judge-halts-36-billion-diverted-from-military-construction-projects-for-border-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge halts $3.6B diverted from military construction projects for border wall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">EL PASO, Texas \u2014 A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from spending some Defense Department money to build a border wall with Mexico, the latest twist in a long-running legal battle over one of the president\u2019s signature domestic issues and campaign priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ruling by District Judge David Briones in El Paso, Texas, prevents the government from spending $3.6 billion that was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/11\/13\/border-wall-opponents-in-court-trying-to-stop-military-funding-for-construction\/\" target=\"_blank\">diverted in September from 127 military construction projects<\/a> to pay for 175 miles (280 kilometers) of border wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2019\/12\/10\/the-pentagons-inspector-general-is-taking-aim-at-border-deployments\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"164\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP18324832047482.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">The Pentagon\u2019s inspector general is taking aim at border deployments<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Pentagon is evaluating its deployments of troops to the U.S.- Mexico border.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His decision doesn\u2019t apply to another pot of Pentagon money, $2.5 billion that was initially meant for counter-drug operations and was redirected to wall spending. In July, the Supreme Court granted an emergency order allowing that money to be spent during a legal challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Justice Department said it would appeal Tuesday\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spending that was halted \u2014 at least for now \u2014 is intended for 11 projects in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The longest and most expensive by far would blanket 52 miles (83.2 kilometers) in Laredo, Texas, at an estimated cost of $1.27 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Pentagon freed $6.1 billion after Trump declared a national emergency on the Mexican border to end a government shutdown in February. Congress gave $1.4 billion for wall construction, far less than what Trump wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/09\/11\/450-miles-of-pentagon-funded-border-wall-by-next-year-in-arizona-it-starts\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP19254149124137.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">450 miles of Pentagon-funded border wall by next year? In Arizona, it starts<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">On a dirt road past rows of date trees, just feet from a dry section of Colorado River, a small construction crew is putting up a towering border wall that the government hopes will reduce \u2014 for good \u2014 the flow of immigrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Briones, ruling in a case filed by El Paso County and the Border Network for Human Rights, said he didn\u2019t want to minimize the importance of border security but \u201cthat concern cannot override the public\u2019s interest in the Executive Branch complying with the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat is especially so when Congress \u2014 the People\u2019s representatives \u2014 determined that securing the border required only $1.375 billion, not $6.1 billion, to be spent on a wall,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Briones, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, stopped short of extending his ruling to the $2.5 billion pot of Pentagon money because, he wrote, it would effectively override the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The president\u2019s critics cheered the decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said it \u201cconfirms the president\u2019s national emergency declaration to steal funds from military families to build a wall he promised Mexico would pay for was, and is, an outrageous power grab by a president who refuses to respect the constitutional separation of powers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from spending some Defense Department money to build a border wall with Mexico, the latest twist in a long-running legal battle over one of the president\u2019s signature domestic issues and campaign priorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":98328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":39,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[104,65,39,31,15,33,9],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1304],"class_list":["post-29779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acquisition-update","category-budget","category-doj-fbi","category-home","category-management","category-newsletters","category-federal-oversight"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"XCFH3JOA3NBRBPV3NDSC57VOP4","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/12\/11\/judge-halts-36-billion-diverted-from-military-construction-projects-for-border-wall\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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