Last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office boasted a win over President Joe Biden and in the name of President-elect Donald Trump. The recently embattled attorney general clinched the W for Trump’s border-security agenda during a hearing held before a federal judge. The hearing, which was called at Attorney General Paxton’s request was said to mean to uncover potential legal violations committed by the Biden Administration after recent reports that segments of the border wall were auctioned off for pennies on the dollar.
The sale of border wall materials went mainstream in mid-December, with Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick taking to X to claim that President Joe Biden was trying to auction off materials “for pennies on the dollar in secret.” Other members of Congress followed suit, claiming that the Biden Administration was attempting to sabotage the project that Trump heavily campaigned on, just before the President-elect heads back to the Oval Office. Trump himself weighed in on the allegations, calling the auction an “almost criminal act”.
The recent allegations of potential sabotage were more recent than the approval of the sale of the materials, which was approved and ordered by Congress in 2023 as part of a plan to dispose of excess border wall material. This excess material was left over when Trump left office in 2020.
What’s Up with the Wall?
Although Trump’s 2016-2020 administration boasted building a “big, beautiful wall”, the administration actually rode the coattail of mostly already-existing barriers separating the U.S. and Mexico. Still, the Trump administration invested $15 billion in “border wall construction”, buying material with the intent of constructing the wall that Trump promised his supporters.
Still, most of the construction that took place during his term actually replaced or updated what was already there. When Trump left office, he estimated that what was sitting in the materials stockpile was enough to construct about 200 miles of wall. The construction of the wall, though, was all but halted with the installation of the Biden Administration, meaning that much of the materials purchased sat unused.
Then, in 2023, Congress passed the annual National Defense Authorization Act and Republicans tacked on a directive requiring officials to come up with and submit a plan to Congress, caring for the disposal of excess border wall material.
From there, the Defense Department submitted a plan that would mean the transfer of the excess construction materials. The plan meant that the materials would change hands to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and to the states, with a preference given to entities and states that had plans for southwestern border projects.
Interestingly enough, in line with the Congressionally approved plan and seemingly in contradiction to Ken Paxton’s uproar about the Biden Administration selling the materials, according to the Homeland Security Department, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Texas and California received more than 60% of the material. The state of Texas itself bought millions worth of border materials in the federal auction with Texas AG Ken Patrick himself confirming during a Fox News interview, that Texas bought $12 million worth of material, enough for the construction of about 4 miles of wall.
Paxton Playing Politics
Paxton’s issue is about the other 40%, materials that were sold in June to GovPlanet, a government and military surplus company. According to the firm, the materials were taken to Arizona and then listed on their website to be auctioned – with some bids starting as low as $5.
Once word was spread and the auction was described as “an apparent effort to hinder President-elect Donald Trump’s effort to secure the border,” federal officials asked GovPlanet to remove the materials from their website and halt the auction. The rumor of sabotage prompted GOP lawmakers and Trump loyalists to take to social media with smoke and mirrors meant to place blame on the Biden Administration.
Now What?
AG Ken Paxton seems to have not only halted the GovPlanet auction, but also cut a deal to be first in line to buy them. Patrick confirmed that GovPlanet assured Texas officials that the state would be the first notified if and when wall materials are put up for auction again adding that Texas would be willing to buy any usable wall panels from GovPlanet. In what seemed to be an attempt to drive a bargain, Paxton commented on the quality of the materials, saying that much of what was up for auction was unusable or not worth moving from Arizona to Texas. He added that if Texas were to purchase the wall materials, the state would donate them to the federal government after Trump is back in office.
Meanwhile, the Biden Administration confirmed that it will agree to an order preventing the outgoing administration from disposing of any further border wall materials over the next 30 days—allowing President Trump to use those materials as he sees fit.
