Pentagon Diverts Funds from Troops to Trump’s Border Wall
Germany schools, Navy clinics, and Air Force facilities lose funding to erect 30-foot fence at Barry Goldwater Range in Arizona
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is redirecting $200 million from dozens of military construction projects—including service member barracks, a school in Germany, and a training facility in Mississippi—to build 20 miles of new border wall in the Arizona desert, according to documents submitted to Senator John Boozman (R-AR), chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on military construction.
The funding will support the installation of a 30-foot permanent steel barrier at the Barry M. Goldwater Range, a remote military testing site along the U.S.-Mexico border. In a letter to Senate appropriators, the Department of Defense said the new infrastructure is “necessary to obtain full operational control of the border.”
MIGRANT INSIDER is sponsored by
The shift, authorized under a rarely used emergency construction statute, pulls $50 million each from Army, Navy, Air Force, and defense-wide accounts. The projects affected include a $15 million replacement of an elementary school in Stuttgart, Germany, $21 million for a health clinic in Washington state, and $12.4 million for a jet training facility in Mississippi.
The eastern half of the Barry M. Goldwater Range is run by the Air Force, while the Marine Corps controls the western portion where the wall will be built. The 20-mile segment will replace an existing 12-foot mesh fence with taller bollard-style fencing, along with pedestrian gates and a patrol road. The section spans between border monuments 192 and 197, as maintained by the International Boundary and Water Commission.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved the project based on a January 20 executive order from President Donald Trump, which prioritizes border barriers to curb unauthorized migration. The Pentagon has not provided a timeline for construction to begin.
MIGRANT INSIDER is sponsored by:
This is not the first time the Pentagon has funded wall construction at the range. In 2020, 31 miles of barrier were erected with military funds. A 2023 report from Luke Air Force Base described “an increase in illegal foot traffic” in the area and cited 7,000 known entries and 3,000 apprehensions over a three-month period.
While the Pentagon has used Title 10 U.S. Code § 2803 to fund emergency military construction in the past—such as a helicopter pad in Afghanistan or training ranges in the U.S.—experts say using it for a politically sensitive project like the border wall is highly unusual.
“This raises the question of how this could possibly be an emergency,” said Greg Williams, director of defense research at the Project on Government Oversight, to Task and Purpose. “It also bypasses the normal review process by Congress and the Department of Defense.”
The funding maneuver comes shortly after the Department of the Navy assumed control of 140 miles of federal land near the border, expanding the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma’s operational footprint and marking the fourth such defense-controlled zone along the border.
Critics have raised concerns about the lack of transparency and oversight. Mark Nevitt, a former Navy lawyer and Emory University law professor, wrote earlier this year that the administration “appears to anticipate legal challenges” over whether military construction for the wall genuinely supports armed forces operations.
A Pentagon spokesperson defended the decision, telling Task & Purpose that “utilizing DoD funds to support the president’s top priorities underscores Secretary Hegseth’s commitment to spending every dollar wisely.”
MIGRANT INSIDER is sponsored by
The executive order behind the decision—coupled with the recent passage of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which allocated $46.5 billion for border wall construction as part of a broader $165 billion Department of Homeland Security funding package—demonstrates the Trump administration’s renewed focus on immigration enforcement in its second term.
Under the law cited, the Pentagon may proceed with construction five days after notifying Congress. No legal challenges have yet been filed in response to the latest shift in funds.
If you’ve made it this far, you care. Help us keep pressing the powerful and exposing what they’d rather you never see—subscribe or donate to keep Migrant Insider going.