Trump applauds court’s decision allowing use of military funds for border wall

United States (U.S.) President Donald Trump said on Thursday that a court had given his administration a green light to use some military funds to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.
According to Trump, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals just reversed a lower court decision and gave us the go-ahead to build one of the largest sections of the desperately-needed Southern Border Wall at $4 billion.
The ruling by a Federal Appeals Court granted the administration’s request to temporarily halt a lower court ruling that blocked officials from using $3.6 billion in Defense Department funds for the construction of the border wall.
The lower court had ruled in December that Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the Southern border in February was unlawful.
Trump declared the emergency after he failed to get Congress to approve some money for him to build a border wall, even after an extended government shutdown because of the fight over appropriations.
He added that it was an unprecedented move.
The president aimed to use the emergency declaration to divert military funds to build a wall, one of his top campaign promises.
It was, however, controversial as Congress is meant to appropriate funding, not the White House.
In its ruling on Wednesday, the court noted that the Supreme Court stayed a similar injunction on July issued by a federal judge.
Trump has said he wants the wall built to fight illegal immigration, drug smuggling, and human trafficking.
He has faced criticism over a harsh crackdown on migration, including the separation of families at the frontier and raids on migrants’ homes.