California leads 20 states in lawsuit challenging Trump's border wall

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California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Xavier Becerra, leading a coalition of 20 states, filed a motion for preliminary injunction to block the Trump administration from using 1.6 billion U.S. dollars in federal taxpayer funds to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The motion, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, challenged President Donald Trump's "illegal and unconstitutional action" to divert taxpayer funding and resources meant for law enforcement, drug interdiction, and military construction projects for the wall.

"The Executive Branch's power is not unlimited," Becerra said in a statement, calling Trump's attempt to fund a wall by declaring a national emergency "unconstitutional."

According to the 48-page lawsuit document, besides California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin joined the motion.

U.S. workers build a section of the U.S.-Mexico border wall at Sunland Park, U.S., opposite the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, November 9, 2016. /VCG Photo‍

Friday's move is a follow-up of the ongoing lawsuit between the states and the White House, which challenged Trump's national emergency declaration in February after the president failed to obtain congressional support for spending bill on a border wall.

The Trump administration is attempting to ultimately divert up to 6.7 billion dollars in taxpayer funding from the Department of the Treasury's Forfeiture Fund, the Department of Defense's counter-drug account, and its military construction projects.

"California stands united against President Trump's money-grab to fund his expensive and ineffective wall, which he promised would be paid for by Mexico," Newsom said in a statement on Friday. "This funding should be spent as it was intended: to support local law enforcement agencies and to fight drug trafficking."

The latest motion directly challenged the imminent movement of 1.6 billion U.S. dollars in federal funds from the Treasure Forfeiture Fund and the Department of Defense's drug interdiction account.

The filing came a day after House leaders voted to authorize a lawsuit against Trump over his national emergency declaration and on the same day when Trump visited California's southern border city of Calexico, 250 km southeast of Los Angeles, and inspected construction works of the border wall there.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency