California files motion to block Trump from using taxpayer funds for border wall

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 taking 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.

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.

Friday’s move is 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.

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

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

“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,” said Newsom. “This funding should be spent as it was intended: to support local law enforcement agencies and to fight drug trafficking.”

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.