New challenge heard to Trump’s emergency for border wall

EL PASO, Texas – Legal groups are mounting another challenge to President Donald Trump’s use of Pentagon funding for a border wall one month after the Supreme Court ruled in Trump’s favour.

A judge heard arguments Thursday in El Paso, Texas, over a lawsuit filed by the local county government and an immigrant advocacy group, the Border Network for Human Rights.

U.S. District Judge David Briones didn’t immediately rule on a request for a preliminary injunction.

Kristy Parker, a lawyer for the legal group Protect Democracy Project, says the lawsuit makes broader arguments than the case presented to the Supreme Court.

The Justice Department argues Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to fund the wall cannot be reviewed by any judge. The department declined comment Thursday.

Crews in Arizona and New Mexico are currently building sections of barriers.