Written with contribution from Sheriff David Clarke
President Donald Trump may be on his way out of office, but it’s hard to refute that of all the promises he made on the campaign trail in 2016, he sure kept a lot of them.
Of course, another four years would be nice to see through more of the work that he’d promised to do while in office, in no small part because border security, while vastly improved since his predecessor’s tenure, still wants a lot of work.
Fortunately, an appeals court recently approved military funding being used for the border wall, which we can hope will not be thwarted by Trump’s illegitimate successor, Joe Biden.
On Friday, December 4th, a decision to reverse the ruling made by a lower court in El Paso County was passed. The original ruling was intended to prevent the Trump Administration from using $3.6 billion of military funds to continue the construction of a border wall.
A panel of the circuit court ruled that the County, along with the Border Network for Human Rights, did not have the grounds to block the Trump Administration from redirecting funds from numerous military construction projects, such as a $20 million road project for a base in the county.
The appeals court ruled that the evidence to support the 2019 ruling by U.S. District Judge David Briones, was insufficient, as neither the county nor the Border Network was directly harmed by the Trump Administration’s decision.
Back, in early 2019, the Trump administration had taken nearly $6 billion, in military funds, during a national emergency, which he declared, after Congress’ refusal to meet his financial demands for border wall construction.
Biden has promised to bring an end to the national emergency, however, with the current funding, several stretches of the southwest border have already been constructed. Meanwhile, President Trump had locked in construction contracts for further development. Those contracts have to legally be met. Or will Biden use taxpayers’ money to pay for no work?
The 9th U.S. Circuit court of Appeals, following the Trump administration’s money transfer, stated in agreement with several environmental groups and a coalition of border states that the construction of the wall would be harmful to the environment. The 5th circuit of Appeals, on Friday, expressed disagreement with 9th Circuit’s ruling and said they would, “Decline to follow it.”
The U.S. Supreme court has rapidly agreed to review the alternate ruling as it pertains to the use of military funds.
Too bad that Republicans do not have the never say die tenacity of Democrats who fought Trump for four years trying to block his attempt to seal the border.
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