Tucked into Congress’ sweeping new $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill, of which $330 billion is appropriated for government programs, is a provision designed to block the Trump administration from using that money towards the construction of a border wall with Mexico. The section of the bill outlining new military spending stipulates that coronavirus relief funds for the Pentagon can be merged with other applicable programs, except for “Drug Interdiction and Counter-Drug Activities”—the very program that the White House most recently used to direct money from Department of Defense accounts towards the border wall. Trump has made building the wall a key domestic priority even as Congress has repeatedly denied his full requests for construction. At times, during the coronavirus crisis, he has appeared to be looking into building a border wall as a measure to stop the spread of the disease—even though the United States has been hit far worse than Mexico. On Mar. 10, Trump tweeted “we need the Wall more than ever!” in response to concerns about the spread of COVID.
