Federal judge expands ban on parts of border wall

A federal judge on Friday expanded a ban on construction of President Donald Trump’s signature southern border wall that would have used money secured under his declaration of a national emergency, but that Congress never approved for the purpose.

U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr., of Oakland, California, blocked construction on four of the administration’s highest-priority projects on the U.S.-Mexico border spanning 79 miles near El Centro, California, and Tucson. The Pentagon had moved to fund the projects using $1. 5 billion transferred into a Defense Department counterdrug program from military pay and training accounts.

In his order granting a permanent halt on the construction, Gilliam also cleared the path for an immediate appeal.

Gilliam last month in part of the same case temporarily stopped another $1 billion transfer for work on stretches totaling 50 miles in eastern New Mexico and Yuma, Arizona.

But he signaled then that environmentalists and border communities covered in Friday’s ruling were likely to prevail in their claims that the administration illegally shifted money that Congress never intended or approved for the wall.

Gilliam last month cited “Congress’ ‘absolute’ control over federal expenditures — even when that control may frustrate the desires of the executive branch,” and on Friday saw no reason to reverse course.

“Defendants do not have the purported statutory authority to reprogram and use funds for the planned border barrier construction,” Gilliam wrote. He acknowledged the government’s “strong interest in border security,” but said, “Absent such authority, Defendants’ position on these factors boils down to an argument that the Court should not enjoin conduct found to be unlawful because the ends justify the means. No case supports this principle.”