The border wall with Mexico is a key election promise made by President Trump. Parliament refuses to give him the necessary funds. In order to keep his promise, Trump wants to secure billions of dollars again in a controversial move.
Washington (AP) - The U.S. Department of Defense plans to spend $ 3.8 billion on armaments programs to build President Donald Trump's wall on the Mexico border, which is said to help fund some 285 kilometers of the border wall, the Pentagon said.
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper defended the decision on Friday against criticism. "Border security is national security and national security is our mission," he said in the presence of Federal Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in Munich. The measure is also legally permissible, said the Pentagon chief.
The money will come, among other things, from programs for the procurement of fighter planes, helicopters and shipbuilding, according to the Washington Post, referring to a Pentagon message to Congress. Representatives of the Democrats as well as the Republicans came in for some violent criticism from Parliament.
Republican MP Mac Thornberry said the reclassification contradicts Congress budget sovereignty. The House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, and the party's minority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, condemned the "theft" of funds approved by Congress for other purposes. "Congress has repeatedly refused to fund the president's wasteful, ineffective border wall," said Pelosi and Schumer. The government is undermining national security with its politically motivated approach, they said.
A Pentagon spokesman said the ministry is responding to a request from the Department of Homeland Security to help combat drug smuggling on the southern border. The spokesperson said the reallocation of the funds needed for this purpose is at the ministry's discretion.
Building the wall on the border with Mexico has long been one of Trump's key promises. Before he was elected President in 2016, he had claimed that Mexico would pay to build the border wall. However, it turned out differently. After three years in office - by mid-January - according to the Ministry of Homeland Security, just over 160 kilometers of the new border wall had been completed - this corresponds to about 5 percent of the approximately 3,200 km long border.
The slow progress is due, among other things, to litigation and resistance from Congress Democrats who control the House of Representatives. Trump then declared a national state of emergency at the border a year ago to allow the redistribution of funds from the defense budget for the construction of the wall. The emergency statement will be extended by a year, the White House said on Thursday. This was necessary to "control illegal immigration and the influx of drugs and criminals on the southern border," it said.
Trump, who is applying for a second term in November, wants to have up to 800 kilometers of the new wall completed by early 2021. However, many experts rate this goal as overly optimistic.