Photo by Jeff Rainforth
A federal judge has just ruled that the Biden administration cannot divert funds that were specifically allocated for the construction of a border wall under Trump.
Biden wanted to use this money for other things, naturally.
This doesn’t mean that Biden has to finish the wall and of course, he won’t. But it also means that he can’t touch the funds.
The Washington Times reports:
Judge orders Biden to stop diverting border wall money
A federal judge on Friday shot down the Biden administration’s plans to divert money from border wall construction to other projects like environmental remediation, ruling that it appears to violate the law.
Judge Drew B. Tipton said Congress gets to decide how money is spent and when it wrote its spending bills for fiscal years 2020 and 2021 it allocated nearly $1.4 billion each year for wall-building. The president trampled on that when he decided to spend wall-building money on “remediation projects.”
The government said it should have leeway to spend the money, and argued the remediation projects were ancillary to the wall and should be allowed.
Judge Tipton, though, said the way Congress wrote the law it was quite specific in saying the money should go to barriers along the border.
“The central question in this case, then, is this: Has the Government obligated FY 2020 and FY 2021 funds for the ‘construction of [a] barrier system’? The answer is largely no,” the judge concluded.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton commented on Twitter/X:
Today, I secured a preliminary injunction against an attempt by the Biden Administration to illegally redirect statutorily obligated funds away from the construction of a border wall. Biden acted completely improperly by refusing to spend the money that Congress appropriated… https://t.co/MGBJD2nOya
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) March 9, 2024
This is great news.
BREAKING: A new court order has been obtained blocking President Biden from using $1.4 billion in funds allocated for border wall construction on projects not related, until the border is secured. pic.twitter.com/0PbdtMw3g3
— Patrick Webb (@RealPatrickWebb) March 9, 2024
BREAKING: In 2020, Congress passed a law ordering @POTUS to finish President Trump’s border wall.
We just obtained a court order blocking him from illegally using your tax dollars on pet projects while the border remains open.
Biden must use the funds to finish the border wall
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) March 8, 2024
This doesn’t solve the border crisis, but it’s a positive development. At least the funds are still going to be there.
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