THE US Defence Department is shifting another US$3.8 billion (RM15.7 billion) from procurement and other operations towards paying for a wall on the border with Mexico, official documents sent to Congress showed yesterday.

The move takes to US$9.9 billion the total the Pentagon has been forced by President Donald Trump to reallocate to the barrier, after Congress repeatedly blocked funding.

Trump declared a national emergency last year to be able to draw federal-budget funds already allocated to other needs for the wall, which aims to deter migrants from entering the country illegally.

Last month, an appeals court backed his diversion of already-purposed federal-budget funds to the project, removing a stay on spending set by a lower court after opponents filed a suit.

The Pentagon told Congress that it is transferring the US$3.8 billion to “counter drug activities” on the border, in support of the Homeland Security Department.

The money is to be culled from various programmes for buying tactical vehicles for the National Guard, vessels for the navy, and combat and transport aircraft for the navy and air force.

Trump promised to build the wall along most of the 3,200km US-Mexico border – paid for by Mexico – during his 2016 presidential campaign.

After he was elected, however, he sought some US$25 billion from Congress, but was repeatedly turned back amid opposition to his harsh stance against undocumented migrants already living in the country.

Meanwhile, the number of illegal border-crossers detained soared as hundreds of thousands of migrants poured into the US, mostly from Central America, seeking asylum.

A crackdown and changes in policy making it far more difficult to stay in the US after submitting an asylum request have seen border apprehension numbers plunge in recent months.

The figure stood at fewer than 37,000 last month, from more than 58,000 a year earlier. – AFP, February 14, 2020.