AUSTIN, TX - As word comes out that the Biden administration is auctioning off materials designed to construct the border wall, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said the Lone Star State is prepared to step in and purchase the materials at auction and store them until President-elect Trump is sworn into office on January 20, 2025, Fox News Digital reports.
Biden stopped construction of the border wall when he was sworn into office in January 2021, but Trump has promised to resume construction of the wall “on day one.”
“I will bed on all of that wall, and we will buy it in Texas, and we will give it to Donald Trump,” Patrick told host Laura Ingraham on Tuesday’s “The Ingraham Angle.”
“I’ve got a billion dollars in my pocket to do it,” Patrick said.
YES!!!
— Conservative Brief (@ConservBrief) December 13, 2024
After it was revealed yesterday the Biden Administration was secretly removing border wall materials and selling them for as low as $5 a piece, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick has announced Texas plans to buy all the material and give it to the Trump Administration so they… pic.twitter.com/nTee5MQUp3
Patrick isn’t the only Texas state official promising to purchase the wall materials. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said she is “fully prepared” to help Patrick’s efforts.
“If you buy it, I have a place to store it–on state land! The [Texas General Land Office] is standing by to help!” she said, calling Biden “shameful” for auctioning off the materials.
During his administration, Trump built 450 miles of border wall; however, Biden stopped construction when he was sworn in. Most people who favor closing our borders are in favor of the wall and believe it is an effective deterrent. Pro-open-borders zealots, however, call the border wall xenophobic and ineffective.
Beginning in 2023, border wall materials were auctioned off, with parts listed on GovPlanet.com, an online auction market. The Department of Defense has told media outlets that the “excess” material had been turned over to the Army Corps of Engineers for disposal and was now for sale.
Officials in Arizona told Fox News Digital that the auctions are continuing and have been conducted weekly for some time. Last week, The Daily Wire published a video showing unused wall materials being transported on flatbed trucks in Arizona, despite the fact the materials could be used when construction resumes next month.
When asked about Biden's disposal of border wall materials, President-elect Trump called it “almost a criminal act” and asked the Biden administration to stop selling the wall parts.
A DoD official told Fox News that the Pentagon had been disposing of excess wall construction materials in keeping with the FY-2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which mandated the Defense Secretary to submit a plan to use, transfer, or donate all remaining wall material purchased with Pentagon funds. That plan was submitted in March.
The official said that border states were given preference for the materials. Texas and California requested and allegedly received border materials, they said.
“Through our reutilization, transfer, and donation process, nearly 60% of those materials were transferred to authorized recipients, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the states of Texas and California,” the official continued. “The remaining 40% was sold to GOVPLANET under a competitive sales contract process beginning in June 2024. The material currently being sold through GOVPLANET online auctions no longer belongs to the U.S. Government, and DoD has no legal authority to recall the material or stop further resale of material it no longer owns.”
Last month, Fox News Digital reported that Texas has offered the Trump administration 1,400 acres of land to stage its proposed mass deportation operation. Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said he is planning how to use the land effectively.
The Largest Deportation Operation in History is starting to ramp up
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) December 12, 2024
Texas says they have 1,400 acres of border land ready to lease the Donald Trump Administration for detention and deportation facilities
For reference that’s 1,061 FOOTBALL FIELDS worth of area pic.twitter.com/mWgGshOHQX
