Trump Administration Diverted $2 Billion in Pentagon Funds to Target Immigrants, Lawmakers Say

The Trump Administration has siphoned off at least billion from the Pentagon budget for anti-immigration measures with plans to more than double that number in the coming fiscal year according to a account distributed Thursday by Democratic lawmakers The description titled Draining Defense took aim at the Trump administration for what it described as prioritizing hard-line boundary initiatives and political stunts at the expense of the military s ability to protect the nation and respond to emergencies It s an insult to our amenity members that Pete Hegseth and Kristi Noem are using the defense budget as a slush fund for political stunts Stripping military information to promote a wasteful political agenda doesn t make our military stronger or Americans safer Sen Elizabeth Warren D-Mass one of the lawmakers who prepared the record reported The Intercept Congress demands to step in and hold the Trump Administration accountable for mishandling billions of taxpayer dollars The assessment noted that the Pentagon s requested budget for indicates that the Defense Department plans to spend at least billion for operations on the southern perimeter alone President Donald Trump has made a crackdown on immigration and closed borders the key protocol of his second term and has argued that decreasing immigration and deporting immigrants is a cornerstone of sovereignty and safety But the lawmakers argued that the level of commitment of Pentagon funds and troops on immigration matters has passed any reasonable standard hampering the overall readiness of the nation s armed forces and contributing to wasteful spending in lieu of more efficient allocation of guidance by civilian agencies When the military is tasked with immigration enforcement a role that is not consistent with DoD s mission and that servicemembers have neither signed up nor been trained for those operations often cost several times more than when the same function is performed by civilian government the lawmakers wrote The summary discovered that the Pentagon had allocated at least billion for guidance and troop deployment to the territory line at least million for the detention of immigrants at military installations at home and abroad at least million for the deployment of troops American cities like Los Angeles Portland and Chicago and at least million for military deportation flights As of July there were roughly troops deployed to the southern perimeter with additional combat units in the process of relieving the troops who were deployed to the dividing line earlier in the year the lawmakers wrote This deployment has meant making combat-certified units no longer available for their normal functions because they are assisting DHS with immigration enforcement raising serious concerns about the implications for military readiness Related Trump s Military Occupations of U S Cities Cost Million and Rising The assessment also singled out the cost of Trump s deployments to U S cities over the past year and cited reporting by The Intercept on the steep cost of those deployments The lawmakers also raised concerns that in addition to the financial costs the Pentagon s focus on anti-immigration policies has resulted in military institution members being pulled from their homes families and civilian jobs for indefinite periods of time to assistance legally questionable political stunts They criticized the administration s failure to adequately inform Congress and the inhabitants about the diversion of Pentagon funds The Trump administration s secrecy leaves a great number of questions unanswered they wrote The administration has failed to provide clarity on basic questions about DoD s role in supporting DHS Related The Questionable Development of Kristi Noem s Million Luxury Jet The White House responded that spending allocated money on one mission does not mean other missions become depleted and disclosed the use of Pentagon funds on immigration matters should be blamed on political adversaries Operations with the Department of Homeland Protection wouldn t be necessary if Joe Biden didn t turn the Southern Margin into a national precaution threat but this administration is proud to fix the difficulty Democrats started disclosed Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson in an emailed declaration The post Trump Administration Diverted Billion in Pentagon Funds to Target Immigrants Lawmakers Say appeared first on The Intercept