Pentagon Shows The Will For Wall: Sanctions $1 Billion For Donald Trump’s US-Mexico Border Security Project

United States Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan on Monday (25 March) authorized $1 billion to build part of the wall that President Donald Trump seeks to build along the US-Mexico border.

US Department of Homeland security had requested the Pentagon to build 57 miles (92 km) of 18-foot (5.5 m) fencing, constructing and improving roads, and install lighting in order to support the President’s national emergency declaration on the southern border of America, Hindustan Times has reported.

According to a Department of Defense statement, 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,”.

The move was defended by the acting Pentagon chief by citing a federal law that he said “gives the Department of Defense the authority to construct roads and fences and to install lighting to block drug-smuggling corridors across international boundaries of the United States in support of counter-narcotic activities of federal law enforcement agencies.”