Biden admin ordered to halt selling off border wall materials
The Biden administration on Friday said it would stop selling off materials slated to be used to build a border wall ahead of the incoming Trump administration, which has promised to bring back tougher efforts to combat illegal immigration.
The Biden administration confirmed to a court that it will agree to a court order preventing it from disposing of any further border wall materials over the next 30 days, allowing President-elect Trump to use those materials, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said.
The Biden administration has been auctioning off border wall parts since at least 2023, with parts listed for sale on auction marketplaces, after it abruptly shut down most border wall construction in 2021.
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Piles of unused border fence sit at one of the border wall construction staging areas on the Johnson Ranch near Columbus, N.M., on Monday, April 12, 2021. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
President-elect Donald Trump then urged the Biden Administration to stop. Fox News Digital has reached out to Trump’s representatives.
“We have successfully blocked the Biden Administration from disposing of any further border wall materials before President Trump takes office,” Paxton said.
“This follows our major victory forcing Biden to build the wall, and we will hold his Administration accountable for illegally subverting our Nation’s border security until their very last day in power, especially where their actions are clearly motivated by a desire to thwart President-elect Trump’s immigration agenda,” he added.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at a news conference in Dallas on June 22, 2017. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
In a news release, Paxton’s office said that if the Biden administration disposes of border wall materials purchased with funds subject to an injunction in violation of a court order, “it would constitute unethical and sanctionable conduct and officials could be held in contempt of court.”
Texas has said it intends to do all it can to help the incoming administration build the wall at the southern border when Trump enters office.
The Biden administration abruptly ended border wall construction in January 2021 after 450 miles had been built in the first Trump administration. While border hawks say a wall is a critical tool to stopping illegal immigration, some Democrats have said a wall project is xenophobic and ineffective.
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President Donald Trump tours a section of the border wall, Tuesday, June 23, 2020, in San Luis, Ariz. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The auctioning off of border wall parts began in 2023 with parts listed for sale on GovPlanet.com, an online auction marketplace. The Defense Department’s logistics agency told media outlets that the excess material had been turned over for disposition by the Army Corps of Engineers and was now for sale.
Those auctions have continued, with officials in Arizona telling Fox News Digital that auctions have been occurring weekly for some time. The practice drew attention last week when The Daily Wire published video showing unused wall parts being transported on flatbed trucks in Arizona, even though the materials could be used in the next Trump administration.
Trump previously called Biden’s efforts to sell unused border wall materials at a discounted rate “almost a criminal act.”
Trump said the auctions would cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to re-purchase the large steel bollards and concrete. He called on President Biden to “please stop selling the wall” and suggested his team would obtain a restraining order to halt the sales.
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“What they’re doing is really an act, it’s almost a criminal act,” he said. “They know we’re going to use it and if we don’t have it, we’re going to have to rebuild it, and it’ll cost double what it cost years ago, and that’s hundreds of millions of dollars because you’re talking about a lot of, a lot of wall.”
Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw, Brooke Singman and Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.