JAN. 2025. Blues Vol 41 No. 1

AROUND THE COUNTRYSOUTH

AROUND THE COUNTRYSOUTH TEXAS BORDERWhy were border wall materials put up for auction? Some Texas lawmakers includingLt. Gov. Dan Patrick slammed the Biden administration over the auctionof wall materials and a Texas Court has put a stop to it.By Ayden RunnelsAUSTIN, TX. – Texas Lt. Gov.Dan Patrick took to X in late December,claiming President JoeBiden was attempting to auctionoff materials intended for constructionof a border wall “forpennies on the dollar in secret.”Some members of Congressmade similar claims on socialmedia and in interviews that theBiden administration was sellingpieces of usable material tostifle wall-building efforts justa month before President-electDonald Trump takes office.Trump also weighed in, callingthe auction an “almost a criminalact” during a press conferenceMonday.“I’m asking today for JoeBiden, to please stop selling thewall,” Trump said.The sale, however, was orderedlast year by Congress,and Texas had already receivedmaterial from the federal government— and purchased moreearlier this year.WHAT’S BEING SOLD AND WHY?The Trump administration invested billion in border wallconstruction, buying materialwith the intent of constructinghundreds of miles of barriersacross the southwest border.Most of the construction replacedor updated already-existingbarriers, and today 140 milesof barrier — mostly built beforethe Trump administration — linesthe Texas-Mexico border.Trump estimated in his pressconference Monday that about200 miles’ worth of material wasstill unused after he left officeand Biden halted most wall construction(some wall constructioncontinued under Biden).The plan for the unused materialwas decided in 2023, whenCongress passed the annualNational Defense AuthorizationAct and Republican lawmakersadded a section directing federalofficials to submit a plan toCongress on how to dispose ofexcess border wall material.The Department of Defensesubmitted its plan in March,allowing the transfer of materialto U.S. Customs and BorderProtection and states, with apreference for southwest border54 The BLUES - JANUARY ‘25

projects. Congress required thatany materials received by statesbe used to maintain current borderbarriers.CBP, Texas and Californiareceived more than 60% of thematerial through a “reutilization,transfer, and donation process,”according to the Department ofHomeland Security.Patrick said in a Fox News interviewThursday that Texas alsobought million worth of materialduring a summer auction,enough to build about four milesof border wall.HOW DID WALL MATERIALSEND UP BEING AUCTIONED?The remaining 40% was sold inJune to government and militarysurplus company GovPlanet,which moved the materials toArizona in December and listedthem for auction on its website— some of it with starting bidsof . GovPlanet had previouslyauctioned off other border wallmaterial in late 2023.Federal officials requested thatGovPlanet remove them fromauction after a Daily Wire articledocumented the materials beingtransferred to Arizona and calledthe move “an apparent effortto hinder President-elect DonaldTrump’s effort to secure theborder.” That prompted lawmakerslike U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison ofMissouri and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruzof Texas to call the move “sabotage”in social media postsreferencing the article.In the Fox News interview,Patrick framed the auction as alast-ditch attempt by Biden tohinder future wall constructionby discarding usable materials,calling it a “Great Biden Christmasborder wall heist.”HOW ARE TEXAS OFFICIALSTRYING TO BLOCK THE AUC-TION?Trump said Monday that hespoke with Texas Attorney GeneralKen Paxton about blockingthe auctions. A day later, Paxtonfiled a motion alongside TexasLand Commissioner Dawn Buckinghamin a preexisting case,claiming the sale to GovPlanetviolates a permanent injunctionthat a federal judge approved inMay.That injunction prevents theBiden administration from redirectingmoney intended forwall construction for otherpurposes — but it doesn’t mentionwall materials. Paxton andBuckingham’s motion arguesthat because the materials werepurchased with the restrictedfunds, selling them to GovPlanetviolates the injunction.“If border wall materials …were sold to third parties, it isas if DHS took the congressionalappropriation and gave the fundsto a third party — contrary tothis Court’s command that thosefunds be used solely for the ‘constructionof physical barriers,’”the motion states.The motion also requests thatthe federal government providethe manufacture date and originalfunding source for each ofthe wall materials sold to Gov-Planet.WILL TEXAS BUY MORE OFTHE WALL MATERIAL?In a Dec. 13 post, Patrick saidthe materials on the auctionblock were not worth salvaging.“The Texas Facilities Commissiontold us today that thematerial for sale was mostlyjunk, with most panels coveredin concrete and rust,” Patrickposted. “There were a few panelsthat might be usable but notworth the cost of shipping toTexas from Arizona.”But on Wednesday, Patrickclaimed that the auction lot containedusable wall panels thatwere “not clearly seen before.”Patrick said Texas would bewilling to buy any usable wallpanels if they become available.He said GovPlanet assured Texasofficials that the state wouldbe the first notified when wallmaterials are put up for auctionagain.Patrick also said that if thestate purchased more wall materials,it would donate themto the federal government afterTrump takes office on Jan. 20.UPDATE AS OF DECEMBER29TH - COURT ORDERS BIDENADMIN TO STOP SELLING BOR-DER WALL MATERIALSThe Biden said it would stopselling off materials slated tobe used to build a border wallahead of the incoming Trumpadministration. The Biden administrationconfirmed to a courtthat it will agree to a court orderpreventing it from disposing ofany further border wall materialsover the next 30 days, allowingPresident-elect Trump to usethose materials, Texas AttorneyGeneral Ken Paxton said.The Biden administration hasbeen auctioning off border wallparts since at least 2023, withparts listed for sale on auctionmarketplaces, after it abruptlyshut down most border wallconstruction in 2021.The BLUES - JANUARY ‘25 55