Federal judge blocks Trump administration from using military construction funds for border wall

EL PASO - A federal judge issued a nationwide injunction blocking the Trump administration from using military construction funds for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. 

The judge’s ruling was for a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division. 

The El Paso County and Border Network for Human Rights sued the Trump administration on Oct. 11, 2019, claiming that because the “Presidential Proclamation on Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States” that sought additional funds for border wall funding was in violation of the 2019 Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) and is unlawful. 

FILE: A section of the border wall stretches through the Rio Grande Valley sector of the Texas border on Aug. 20, 2019. (Photo by Jinitzail Hernández/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The plaintiffs sought for the court to issue a declaratory judgement that the proclamation is unlawful and to permanently enjoin the Trump administration from using funds appropriated by the CAA for “military construction” and “support for counterdrug activities” on building a border wall.

Senior U.S. District Judge David Briones issued a declaratory judgement that declared Trump’s proclamation to be unlawful. 

“It is finally ordered” that officials from the Trump administration are “permanently enjoined” from using the funds beyond the $1.375 billion in the CAA for border wall construction, the ruling said. 

You can read the entire ruling below:

This story was reported from Los Angeles.