Discussions are continuing at the White House this week on using executive action to secure funding for a border wall — but President Trump’s advisers remain divided on the issue.
Trump himself has yet to decide whether to move forward without Congress.
The latest meetings came on Wednesday and Thursday this week, including sessions convened in the Situation Room with White House, Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security officials meant to identify funding streams and mechanisms that would allow a wall to be built within a year.
Not likely to be an emergency: At this stage, the notion of declaring a national emergency to fund wall construction appears to have faded, though has not been entirely ruled out by the President.
Instead, the administration has eyed Department of Defense funds, including counternarcotics money, for wall construction, in addition to civil works funding or funds from civil asset forfeiture that could be made available for the wall.
One open question is whether those funding streams would allow the federal government to seize land upon which to build the wall — a step that could take years to resolve in the courts.
It’s also not clear whether those pots of money would amount to the $5.7 billion that Trump has deemed necessary for the border wall.
But legality is still an issue: Ultimately, the question of court challenges is still one of the main hang-ups in using executive action to secure the wall funding. Trump’s advisers have cautioned that taking that route would lead to certain legal challenge, meaning the wall construction would still be delayed.
Some Trump aides have also suggested using executive action would let Congress off the hook from passing a border security package.
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