US Judge Temporarily Bars Trump Administration From Constructing Border Wall - Ruling

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th May, 2019) Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr., a US Federal judge in the Northern District of California, has temporary frozen part of US President Donald Trump's plan to spend billions of dollars, allocated as part of a national emergency declaration, for building the long-promised southern border wall.

The construction of the wall on the US-Mexican border to prevent the influx of undocumented migrants and drug trafficking has been one of Trump's main campaign pledges. The president, however, has been struggling to find financing for the wall since Congress has refused to allocate billions of Dollars from the budget at Trump's request. In order to bypass Congress and secure the necessary funding, Trump has declared a state of national emergency on the US southern border.

"In short, the position that when Congress declines the Executive's request to appropriate funds, the Executive nonetheless may simply find a way to spend those funds 'without Congress' does not square with fundamental separation of powers principles dating back to the earliest days of our Republic," Gilliam wrote in his ruling, issued on Friday, as quoted by Politico.

While the order prevents the Defense Department from providing $1 billion in funds for the project and questions the use of another $1.5 billion, it does not prevent the authorities from seeking funding from other sources, the outlet explained.

The judge said, as cited by the outlet, that the authorities planned to use the funds to start building wall sections as soon as Saturday.

The indictment concerned the Texas and Arizona segments of the border, the outlet pointed out.

The ruling derives from the motion filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of the Southern Border Communities Coalition, a civil rights alliance, and the Sierra Club environmental NGO. Gilliam said that similar petitions had been submitted by the authorities of 20 US states.