The president, Donald Trump, plans to allocate an additional $ 7.2 billion for the construction of a wall on the southwest border, five times more than what Congress had authorized by 2020. The funds would come from the Department of Defense, according to internal documents obtained by the newspaper The Washington Post.
Is about new funds that would also come out of anti-narcotics activities and military infrastructure projects. According to the plans consulted by that newspaper, it would be enough to finance 885 miles of fences border, which would be completed in the spring of 2022.
Trump had promised that he would build 509 miles of fences with Mexico. The new goal would far exceed the initial plans.
While last year the funds for the fight against drug trafficking at the border that went to the wall were 2,500 million dollars, this year the president plans to divert 3,500 million dollars. In addition to 3.7 billion of the budget for military infrastructure projects, the newspaper quoted reported.
In all, Trump would get $ 18.4 billion of federal funds for border fences.
The president decreed on February 15 a state of national emergency for the alleged crisis caused by immigrants undocumented at the border, which has allowed him to derive additional funds for the wall.
“It is a great thing because we have an invasion of drugs, an invasion of gangs, an invasion of people, ”Trump then said. It was one of his main campaign promises in 2016 and he even promised that Mexico would pay for it, although this has not happened.
So far, only 101 miles of new barriers have been built, of the 450 miles that the president promised to build at the end of this year.
The Government has replaced some existing barrier segments (there were already some 700 miles, more than 1,100 kilometers, along the entire southern border) with a more modern infrastructure. In total, the border between the United States and Mexico is almost 2,000 miles (about 3,200 km) long.
On January 9, a federal court of appeals allowed the Administration to use $ 3.6 billion of Pentagon funds for the wall, the use of which is the subject of a lawsuit by El Paso County, Texas and the Border Network for Human Rights organization against Trump’s government
It has been one of several legal obstacles that the Administration has had to face. In the Rio Grande Valley area, in Texas, owners have opposed being expropriated For the wall to pass through there. Although the government has responded with court applications to acquire the land.
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The construction of the water wall is difficult for Donald Trump
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