WASHINGTON: Acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan has authorized $1 billion to build part of the wall sought by Donald Trump along the US-Mexico border, the first funds designated for the project under the president’s emergency declaration.
The Department of Homeland Security asked the Pentagon to build 92 kilometres of 5.5-meter fencing, construct and improve roads, and install lighting to support Trump’s emergency declaration.
Shanahan “authorized the commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers to begin planning and executing up to $1 billion in support to the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol,” a Pentagon statement issued late Monday read.
The acting defense secretary cited a federal law that he said gives the Pentagon broad authority to build infrastructure “across international boundaries of the United States in support of counter-narcotic activities of federal law enforcement agencies.”
The statement was released a day before Shanahan was due to testify in Congress to present and defend the Pentagon’s draft budget.
The White House has laid out an ambitious 2020 budget proposal which contains $8.6 billion in new wall funding, above the $5.7 billion Trump sought for this year.
Frustrated by Congress’s refusal to provide the budget he wanted, Trump declared a national emergency last month.
The White House has signalled it will seek to repurpose some $6 billion from military funds, without specifying which Pentagon programs would be slashed.
The move drew condemnation from both the president’s rival Democrats and fellow Republicans, who warned it was an abuse of presidential powers and created a dangerous precedent.
Trump has made border security an over-arching domestic issue and says it will remain at the centre of the agenda in his 2020 re-election bid.
Although there has been a surge in arrival of families and children at the border, overall apprehensions at the frontier are down substantially from a decade or more ago.
There have also been reported misgivings within the military, including from America’s top marine who last week warned that deployments to the US-Mexico border pose an “unacceptable risk” to the force, according to documents obtained by The Los Angeles Times.
In memos addressed to acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan and Navy secretary Richard Spencer, General Robert Neller wrote that he had been forced to cancel or reduce exercises in five countries.
Neller added the declaration meant the corps could not afford to rebuild hurricane-hit bases in North Carolina and Georgia.
“The hurricane season is only three months away... and we have Marines, Sailors, and civilians working in compromised structures,” Neller wrote.
The declaration has also been challenged by 16 states which sued the administration last month, contending the order was contrary to the constitution’s presentment and appropriations clauses, which outline legislative procedures and define Congress as the final arbiter of public funds.
The lawsuit also questioned Trump’s categorization of illegal border crossings as a national emergency, saying data issued by the administration itself refuted the notion.
Should the states prevail, the case could work its way up to the Supreme Court, setting up a precedent-setting showdown on the separation of powers.
Pentagon authorizes $1bn for Trump’s border wall
Pentagon authorizes $1bn for Trump’s border wall
- The wall will run for 92 kilometres with 5.5-meter fencing
- Acting defense secretary said federal law allows the Pentagon to build infrastructure on the US border
UN report says Ugandan troops helped South Sudan with deadly airstrikes
- Ugandan troops are deployed in South Sudan to help the government of President Salva Kiir against forces loyal to opposition figure Riek Machar
- The attacks cited in the UN report involved widespread use of “improvised incendiary devices,” it said
NAIROBI: Uganda helped South Sudan carry out airstrikes that killed and badly burned civilians a year ago, according to a UN inquiry.
Joint aerial bombardments by South Sudan and Uganda “targeted civilian-populated areas predominantly affecting Nuer communities in opposition-affiliated areas,” said the report by the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, referring to South Sudan’s second-largest ethnic group.
Ugandan troops are deployed in South Sudan to help the government of President Salva Kiir against forces loyal to opposition figure Riek Machar, who was suspended as vice president in September after he faced criminal charges. Ugandan military authorities say troops are in South Sudan at the invitation of the South Sudan government and in accordance with a bilateral security agreement.
While Machar is currently on trial for offenses including treason, fighting has intensified in areas seen as his strongholds, where government troops are trying to disperse the rebels.
The attacks cited in the UN report involved widespread use of “improvised incendiary devices,” it said.
Ugandan forces entered South Sudan in March 2025 with military hardware, including tanks and armored vehicles. That happened shortly after a militia overran a military garrison near the Ethiopian border.
Weeks later, Machar was placed under house arrest for his alleged role in orchestrating the attack, charges that he denies. The government has since relied on aerial attacks to gain the upper hand in a widening conflict with Machar’s forces and other armed groups.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni sent his army to intervene in South Sudan’s 2013-2018 civil war on multiple occasions on behalf of Kiir’s forces, helping to turn the tide in his favor. Ongoing fighting threatens a 2018 peace deal.
During one attack in March 2025 in Wunaliet, 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the capital of Juba, homes were engulfed after planes dropped “barrels of liquid that ignited,” witnesses told the UN commission. Survivors said they saw “civilians set alight, including a boy burnt beyond recognition.” A barracks, housing opposition soldiers, was also struck.
A day after the attack, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Museveni’s son who also serves as the top military commander, posted on X that Uganda had bombed opposition forces.
“Our air offensive will not stop until Riek Machar makes peace with my uncle Afande Salva,” he wrote. While Kiir is not actually Kainerugaba’s uncle, the term shows the closeness of the two governments.
The post, which was later deleted, accompanied a video appearing to show fiery explosions captured from an in-flight aircraft.
Flight tracking data shows that a turboprop plane that circled the area during the bombing had arrived earlier that day from Uganda and was operated by the Ugandan army, the UN report said.
The report does not state conclusively how many operations Uganda was involved in or the exact nature of their involvement, only that there appeared to be “high degrees of planning, operational integration and command-level authorization.”
In November, Uganda denied participating in any combat operations in South Sudan. It has also denied using “chemical weapons and barrel bombs” and said it does not attack civilians.
Last year, Amnesty International said that Uganda had violated a 2018 UN arms embargo that prohibits member states from providing most forms of military assistance to South Sudan, including weapons and personnel. An UN panel of experts echoed that assessment in November.
