US judge blocks Donald Trump from using millitary funds for border wall

United States judge in Seattle on February 27 barred US President Donald Trump from diverting $89 million navy funds to build the US-Mexico border wall as Congress had intended to use the money for the military construction project in Washington state. The US Supreme Court along with some other courts had said that the Trump administration can initiate the process of diverting billions of dollars in military spending to the wall. 

While the work has been done in some sections, reportedly US District Judge Barbara Rothstein declared that the case brought by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson contained a set of issues which remain uncovered with those decisions made by US apex court. The Judge found out that diversion of the money was unlawful because US House of Representatives has the power of the purse under country's constitution, and it had specifically barred Trump from spending any additional funds on the wall. 

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Furthermore, according to Rothstein, that decision was also against the US law because it would utilise money by the Congress allocated for military construction and use it for domestic law enforcement. According to international media reports, the US District judge wrote that “Congress repeatedly and deliberately declined to appropriate the full funds” that Trump had requested for his signature campaign of 2016 elections, the border wall. 

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Trump insisted Mexico would pay

However, every time the US President had mentioned the southern border wall, he had also said that Mexico would pay for it.  Since that hasn't been the case, in late 2018 and in 2019 the Congress had refused to give Trump all of the money he requested for the wall, it also led to a partial government shutdown for 35 days. Therefore, lawmakers ended up allowing $1.4 billion for the US-Mexico border wall.  

In reaction to this, the US President had declared a national emergency which the administration claimed allowed him to shift nearly $3.6 billion from military accounts to build the wall sections passing from California, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico. While other legal challenges still remain, this particular $89 million was intended for a pier at Naval Base Kitsap, the base west of Seattle where the Pacific fleet of nuclear submarines is based. However, the Washington attorney general had said that losing this amount would further cost the state $2.6 million in tax revenue over the next two years and the judge agreed. 

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