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Feb. 28 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump said Wednesday that no construction on his proposed border wall will begin until Congress approves the funding for it. Trump's remarks followed a federal court ruling that dismissed a challenge to the wall on regulatory grounds.
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U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration has the right to waive environmental laws and other regulations to begin building the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Curiel said he did not have any "serious constitutional doubts" about the government's use of the waivers, and noted that it's not the court's role to evaluate possible motives for building the wall.
"In its review of this case, the court cannot and does not consider whether underlying decisions to construct the border barriers are politically wise or prudent," Curiel wrote.
The lawsuit, filed by the state of California last year, argued that the Department of Homeland Security had improperly waived the National Environmental Policy Act and other immigration and environmental rules to begin preparing for the wall.
Wednesday, Trump reiterated that the United States "must have border security."
"I have decided that sections of the Wall that California wants built NOW will not be built until the whole Wall is approved," Trump tweeted. "Big victory yesterday with ruling from the courts that allows us to proceed."
Congress has yet to approve or provide funding for the wall, which has been estimated to cost as much as $20 billion.
Curiel is the same judge Trump criticized in a 2016 interview, suggesting his "Mexican heritage" made him unfit to decide a class action suit involving the president's now-defunct real estate training company, Trump University.
Tuesday, Trump acknowledged the judge's ruling.
"Big legal win today," he tweeted. "U.S. judge sided with the Trump Administration and rejected the attempt to stop the government from building a great Border Wall on the Southern Border. Now this important project can go forward!"
