Last week, the Department of Defense reallocated $3.6 billion in military funds for the construction of the proposed barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border.
DOD Secretary Mark Esper issued a memorandum last Tuesday that states funds for 11 military construction projects along the international border with Mexico “are necessary to support the use of the armed forces in connection with the national emergency” declared
by President Donald Trump earlier this year.
The projects are:
–Yuma Project 2, $40 million
–Yuma Project 10/27, $527 million
–Yuma Project 3, $630 million
–San Diego Project 4, $67 million
–Yuma Project 6, $65 million
–El Paso Project 2, $476 million
–El Paso Project 8, $164 million
–San Diego Project 11, $57 million
–El Centro Project 5, $20 million
–Laredo Project 7, $1.3 billion
–El Centro Project 9, $286 million.
U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) tweeted his displeasure with the decision.
It is a slap in the face to the members of the Armed Forces who serve our country that @realDonaldTrump is willing to cannibalize already allocated military funding to boost his own ego, and for a wall he promised Mexico would pay to build. https://t.co/sv2ys87bw1
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) September 3, 2019
Mark Kaswan, a UTRGV political science associate professor, said the decision by the Pentagon “is very interesting.”
“Typically, conservatives are very concerned about military readiness,” he said. “You know, the Pentagon spending is kind of sacred in a way to them. They are very concerned to make sure the military has everything that it needs and, so, to see conservatives supporting or proposing this diversion of funding from the Pentagon is kind of surprising.”
The political science professor added Trump has had an impact on the Republican Party and convinced conservatives to abandon traditional positions.
“What it also shows is that Donald Trump has created a crisis where a crisis didn’t exist,” Kaswan said. “Not only has he created a crisis, but certainly created the feeling and sentiment that there is a crisis, which we who live here on the border know it wasn’t a crisis, isn’t a crisis. He is using that feeling of a crisis to implement a policy solution. … The majority of Americans don’t want a wall built.
“Security experts agree that a wall is not an effective solution to our immigration problem. Even Trump has acknowledged that is not the best solution to the problems, and the reason he says he has to do it is because it was what he was elected to do.”
To view the full memorandum, visit www.defense.gov/Newsroom/.
