Pentagon authorizes $1 billion for Trump’s border wall

Acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan has authorized $1 billion to build part of the wall sought by Donald Trump along the US-Mexico border, the first funds designated for the project under the president’s emergency declaration. The Department of Homeland Security asked the Pentagon to build 57 miles (92 kilometers) of 18-foot (5.5-meter) fencing, construct and improve roads, and install lighting to support Trump’s emergency declaration.

Shanahan “authorized the commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers to begin planning and executing up to $1 billion in support to the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol,” a Pentagon statement issued late Monday read. The acting defense secretary cited a federal law that he said gives the Pentagon broad authority to build infrastructure “across international boundaries of the United States in support of counter-narcotic activities of federal law enforcement agencies.”

The statement was released a day before Shanahan was due to testify in Congress to present and defend the Pentagon’s draft budget. The White House has laid out an ambitious 2020 budget proposal which contains $8.6 billion in new wall funding, above the $5.7 billion Trump sought for this year.

Frustrated by Congress’s refusal to provide the budget he wanted, Trump declared a national emergency last month. The White House has signaled it will seek to repurpose some $6 billion from military funds, without specifying which Pentagon programs would be slashed.