These 127 Military Construction Projects Will Lose Funding Because of Trump’s Border Wall

Elementary schools, a child development center, and the replacement for a “hazardous materials warehouse” are all on the chopping block.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Since President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border in February, we’ve known that the US military would bear the majority of the cost for Trump’s vaunted border wall. Now the Pentagon has figured out which programs will be stripped of their funding, according to a document sent by Defense Secretary Mark Esper to the leaders of several congressional defense committees. 

The letter, which was first reported on by the Daily Beast, contains a list of 127 projects that will lose a total of $1.7 billion in funding to support border wall construction. One-fifth of the construction projects stripped of funding are located outside the continental United States, including 10 programs in Puerto Rico worth more than $400 million.

The Pentagon has spent months searching for $3.6 billion to build fencing along the US-Mexican border and resolved in February to split the total among unallocated military construction funding, a Pentagon counter-drug program, and the Treasury Department’s asset forfeiture unit. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Elaine McCusker told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday that the construction projects at issue are “definitely not canceled” but would have to be put on ice indefinitely. “We do realize that this could cause some delay,” she said

Esper’s letter, which said federal dollars would not be taken from “family housing, barracks, or dormitory projects,” established that the delayed construction funding would go toward “more than 54 miles” of fencing along the border but did not use the word “wall,” the Daily Beast reported. He also defended the utility of the fencing, which Democrats have lambasted as a politically motivated stunt intended to gin up fear of migrants.

“These projects will deter illegal entry, increase the vanishing time of those illegally crossing the border, and channel migrants to ports of entry,” Esper wrote. “In short, these barriers will allow DoD to provide support to DHS more efficiently and effectively. In this respect, the contemplated construction projects are force multipliers.” 

That explanation is sure to leave congressional Democrats unsatisfied and some lawmakers have already ratcheted up their criticism of Trump’s decision to steer funding away from the military for a project he promised would be funded by Mexico. 

“This decision will harm already planned, important projects intended to support our service members at military installations in New York, across the United States, and around the world,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) tweeted Tuesday. “It is a slap in the face to the members of the Armed Forces who serve our country that President Trump is willing to cannibalize already allocated military funding to boost his own ego and for a wall he promised Mexico would pay to build.”

You can see the list of all affected projects here:

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate