Trump's diversion of billions for border wall faces first U.S. court test

The U.S. House of Representatives took its battle over the Trump administration’s border wall to federal court on Friday, urging a judge to stop billions of dollars from being transferred toward construction of the barrier without approval by Congress. “As everyone knows the executive branch cannot build this wall without Congress,” Douglas Letter, representing the House, told the U.S. District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland, California. “The president asked for $8.1 billion to build the wall and Congress said no to that. This money was clearly denied by Congress under immense pressure.” The House, 20 states and two advocacy groups asked Gilliam to block the transfer of funds to prevent the wall construction. In February, after a protracted political battle and a government shutdown, Congress approved $1.37 billion for construction of “primary pedestrian fencing” along the border in southeast Texas, wellshort of President Donald Trump’s demands. To obtain the additional money, Trump declared a national emergency and diverted $601 million from a Treasury Department forfeiture fund, $3.6 billion from military construction and $2.5 billion earmarked for Department of Defense counternarcotics programs. Trump has said the wall is needed to address a crisis of drugs and crime flowing across the border...MORE