The Biden administration has been quietly selling off tens of millions of dollars worth of unused border wall construction materials, according to a report from the New York Post. Beginning in April, the online auction has offloaded raw materials for pennies on the dollar in an apparent effort to undermine Republican legislators pushing for the completion of the wall that began under former President Donald Trump.
Online auction house GovPlanet—which usually specializes in military surplus—has made roughly $2 million from the sale of 81 lots of steel structural tubes originally intended to be used as the upright beams in the border wall’s 30-foot panels. As recently as last Tuesday, GovPlanet sold 729 of the hollow beams for $212 apiece for a total of $154,200. Thirteen more lots are scheduled for auction later this month, and proceeds from the sales are reportedly being added to the Pentagon’s budget.
GovPlanet is obligated to keep the original purpose of the materials a secret, listing them only as “steel tubing and sticks for industrial construction.” However, a source speaking to financial newsletter the Daily Upside revealed the lots’ origin. “We are legally not allowed to mention these are the border wall materials, or we could lose our jobs…But that’s what they are—110 percent.”
Any lingering doubt about where the materials had come from was laid to rest once images from the auctioneer’s website began to circulate—and Biden’s critics quickly accused the president of making an attempted end-run around his opponents in Congress.
Last month, the finalized version of the Senate’s defense appropriations package included a Republican-sponsored bill that would force Biden to address the crisis at the border and allow construction to resume. The “Finish It Act,” co-sponsored by Senators Ted Cruz, Roger Wicker, and Joni Ernst, would require the federal government to use all remaining materials “for the express purpose of constructing a permanent physical barrier to stop illicit human and vehicle traffic along the border of the United States with Mexico.” If the government fails to accomplish this, border states would be allowed to use the materials themselves.
But in the event that the wall parts—worth an estimated $300 million and left to rust since Biden took office—are sold before the bill goes into effect, no construction will take place.
“This sale is a wasteful and ludicrous decision by the Biden administration that only serves as further proof they have no shame,” Senator Wicker said. This criticism was echoed by other Republican lawmakers, all of whom accused President Biden of deliberately making the border crisis worse and putting American lives at risk.
Upon assuming the presidency in 2021, Biden immediately halted all ongoing border construction projects launched under the previous administration, putting an end to Donald Trump’s $15 billion border wall. Since then, immigrant crossings have surged to all-time highs—1.7 million in 2021 and 2.4 million in 2022, according to US Customs and Border Patrol. 2023 is on track to break that record yet again, with 1.8 million migrant encounters reported just in the last nine months.
A congressional investigation earlier this year also uncovered the fact that storing the unused materials was costing the Department of Defense $130,000 per day.
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