Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,
The Biden administration has been instructed by a federal judge not to sell off portions of the U.S.–Mexico border wall, which would allow President-elect Donald Trump to use these materials.
On Dec. 17, the State of Texas filed a lawsuit at the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas McAllen Division after reports of the Biden administration selling segments of the border wall along the U.S.–Mexico Border.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he secured a victory in the case after a hearing on Friday.
The Biden administration agreed to a court order preventing the federal government from “disposing of any further border wall materials over the next 30 days—allowing President Trump to use those materials as he sees fit,” Paxton’s office said.
If the order is violated, the court has the authority to enforce it.
“This follows our major victory forcing [President Joe] 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,” Paxton said in a Dec. 27 statement.
Congress had dedicated around $1.4 billion to build fencing along the southern border as part of Trump’s bid to counter illegal immigration. After Biden came to power, he issued an executive order ceasing wall construction and asked the Department of Homeland Security to use the funds for other purposes.
In May 2024, Attorney General Paxton secured a court order forcing the Biden administration to spend the funds on the border wall. Selling off portions of the border wall that was bought using funds allocated for the purpose would be deemed a violation of this order.
The Dec. 17 lawsuit was filed after reports that the federal government “may be auctioning off up to half a mile per day of border wall sections for a mere fraction of the original purchase cost,” Paxton’s office said. “In some cases, the government is allegedly listing entire wall panel sections for sale at a starting bid of just $5.”
Border Security
During a Dec. 16 press conference, Trump said he spoke with officials in Texas regarding reports of the wall parts auction.
“We’re going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more on building the same wall we already have,” Trump said. “It’s almost a criminal act.”
The president-elect said he had spoken with Paxton about securing a restraining order against such actions. “I’m asking today, Joe Biden, to please stop selling the wall,” Trump said.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said selling the border wall was like “treating our national security as if it’s a yard sale,” according to a Dec. 16 X post. “This isn’t just a fight against the incoming president—it’s a fight against the American people.”
Last year, the Biden administration allowed the construction of 20 miles of the southern border, with the president saying he had no choice in the matter but to allow the allocated federal funds to be used for the project.
“The money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get them to reappropriate, to redirect that money,” Biden said in an address. When asked whether the border wall was effective, the president replied, “no.”
In 2020, the Department of Homeland Security said that the border wall resulted in a decline in incidents of illegal crossings, smuggling of drugs, and human smuggling.
Earlier this year, Melissa Dalton, the assistant secretary of defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs, told lawmakers that “a border barrier can help mitigate the flow” of illegal immigrants.
Most Americans also favor building a U.S.–Mexico border wall. A Monmouth University poll released in February showed that 58 percent of respondents supported such a measure, breaking the previous high of 48 percent in 2015.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/28/2024 – 12:50
