The chairman of the Joint Chiefs Wednesday defended the military’s deployment to the U.S.-Mexico border, but wouldn't say whether it was right to divert military funds toward border barrier construction.
“I’m not going to comment on the appropriateness of taking money from the Department of Defense and moving it to the border,” Marine Gen.
Joseph Dunford told an audience at the Brookings Institution.That was in contrast to how Dunford described the deployment of 3,200 active-duty troops to help civilian law enforcement at the border. He called that “fundamentally a legal and appropriate mission.”
At the White House’s direction, the Pentagon has been channeling money from various military accounts to border barrier construction. That money has allowed the Pentagon to award $6 billion in construction contracts.
This month, acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan told Fox News he was following the president's orders.
"We have a crisis at the border, a national emergency declared by the president," Shanahan said. "The commander in chief has given me a direct legal order to secure the border. I'm securing the border."
Last week, a U.S. district court judge in California barred some of the military funds from being used on specific parts of the border. The initial $1 billion was committed using a tactic that Judge Haywood Gilliam deemed unconstitutional since the military counterdrug fund the money was channeled through could only be used for “unforeseen” needs.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine