President-elect Donald Trump has sued to block the Biden administration from promoting unused fabric for the border wall.
On Wednesday, Trump filed an amicus brief in the Southern District of Texas, urging a federal ruling to halt the sale of leftover fabrics originally intended for the U. S. -Mexico border wall.
The case centers on allegations that federal officials are holding “liquidation sales” of unused border wall fabric, which could harm Trump’s plans to resume the border wall structure.
Newsweek has reached out to Biden-Harris management for comment via email.
Reports emerged that fabric intended for the wall had been disposed of in Arizona and scheduled to be sold at auction, just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump, a staunch defender of the barrier, prepares to return to the House of Representatives to present your proposal. strict immigration agenda.
Video footage received via The Daily Wire shows border wall panels being transported near Tucson, Texas, to a government surplus auction site, GovPlanet.
In 2023, Congress ordered President Joe Biden’s administration to dispose of unused fabric from border walls, the National Defense Authorization Act.
The law allows such fabrics to be sold or donated to southern border states, as long as they are used to fix existing barriers and build new ones.
The amicus brief accuses the Biden administration of violating federal law by disposing of materials Congress appropriated for border security. Trump’s filing also calls for a judicial review to determine whether the sales violated statutory mandates.
The brief, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, demands a prompt halt to sales and a full investigation into management’s actions. It maintains that the reported sales violate a congressional mandate to build border barriers, ignore an existing court order and could save the incoming Trump administration from eroding its border security agenda.
The document read by Newsweek reads, “President Trump is deeply concerned by recent reports that Biden administration officials sold border wall fabrics at rock-bottom prices, i. e. , this era of the outgoing duck. “
“On December 17, 2024, President Trump said he had obtained information that the Biden administration was promoting border wall fabric for ‘five cents on the dollar’ and that it was ‘almost a criminal act. ‘
Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, told Newsweek: “President Trump has filed an amicus brief in the Southern District of Texas, it is not easy for a highly respected federal judge to promptly approve the ‘direct sale’ through Biden’s management of fabrics for the border wall at rock-bottom prices and orders an investigation.
“Any attempt by Biden officials to obstruct President Trump’s plan to build the border wall is unlawful, unconstitutional, and possibly criminal, as our brief argues.
“The Biden leadership has a blatant record of breaking the law, specifically in its catastrophic open borders policy, so the courts deserve to view its moves here with particular skepticism. President Trump will not be deterred from building the wall, protecting our border, and making America wonderful again.
Art Del Cueto, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, said in a post about “using those symptoms for what they were meant for (protecting our nation’s borders). “This is an elegant transition of force as the existing administration claimed. »
Biden halted the border wall structure when he took office in 2021. His predecessor, and future successor, Trump, has made the wall the cornerstone of his immigration policy. He has vowed to reactivate the structure as soon as he returns to the force. in January.
With the incoming administration set to take power, it is expected that construction will resume on the flagship policy of Trump’s first administration.
The president-elect has vowed to carry out the largest mass deportation operation in US history and crack down on illegal immigration.
Billal Rahman is a journalist for Live News in London, UK. He specializes in foreign affairs and U. S. politics. He joined Newsweek in 2024 after leaving The Independent. He covered the British post office scandal and the confrontation between Israel and Hamas. Originally from Glasgow, he studied journalism in Edinburgh and then worked for STV News before moving to London in 2022. Billal can be reached at b. rahman@newsweek. com.