The Wall: Pentagon Authorizes $1 Billion in Funding Toward Trump’s Wall

Mar 27, 2019

Facing an Unprecedented Crisis at the Border, Pentagon Approves Crucial Funding for Trump’s Wall Project

On Monday, March 25, 2019 the Pentagon informed Congress that it has authorized up to $1 billion in funding to go toward building the border wall along the American and Mexican border.

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has given the Army Corps of Engineers the green light to begin constructing 57 miles of 18-foot-high fencing in the border towns of Yuma, Arizona, and El, Paso, Texas.

According to the Associated Press, the Pentagon is diverting $1 billion to support the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection. These funds would be allocated toward installing lighting and constructing roads in those areas.

Shanahan stated that the Corps’ will be focused on blocking “drug-smuggling corridors.”

The El Paso region has quickly become the second-busiest corridor for illegals crossing the border right after Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. Many of these illegals are families coming from Central America seeking asylum. The Yuma area has witnessed a surge in illegal crossings largely from Guatemalan families.

Trump’s emergency declaration at the border now stands with Congress failing to muster enough votes to secure a veto override.

This latest news comes as a positive development for advocates of strong borders. Immigration reform advocates like Maria Espinoza believe that a border wall is needed to mitigate the negative effects of mass migration. She claims that “where fencing and barriers have been constructed, apprehensions of illegal aliens have declines as much as 95 percent.”

Others look at the European Union’s mass migration policies and the social damage they have done in recent times as to why America needs greater border security. President Trump went as far as to describe Belgium’s capital Brussels as a “hellhole” and warned about the pitfalls of uncontrolled immigration from Islamic countries taking place across Europe.

For closed border advocates, the construction of the wall is a good first step. However, other reforms that closed border proponents have pushed for like ending birthright citizenship and chain migration will encounter stiff challenges thanks to the divided Congress.