Four Democrat congressmen, three of whom represent districts along the U.S. southern border, demanded the Trump administration halt border construction amid the coronavirus pandemic and direct the funds instead to fight the outbreak.
In the letter dated Wednesday to the heads of the Justice Department, the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security, Reps. Raul Grijalva, Filemon Vela and Ann Kirkpatrick and House Homeland Security Committee chairman Bennie Thompson demanded border wall construction immediately cease to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
"At a time when we are all taking extraordinary steps to limit the death toll and economic devastation wrought by this unprecedented pandemic, it is deeply concerning to learn that government officials, contractors and construction workers in border communities will defy public orders and continue border wall construction unabated, perhaps even accelerating construction in our border communities," the letter read.
President Donald Trump has claimed the border wall will stymie the spread of the disease but the Democrats said in their letter that workers congregating in rural towns threaten to overwhelm their limited medical facilities and resources if an outbreak were to occur. "As the virus continues to spread and our healthcare system grows even more strained, all federal resources being spent on the wall are desperately needed to fight the pandemic," the congressmen said in the letter, pointing out that hundreds of millions of dollars funding the border wall construction were originally earmarked for emergency and disaster response.
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