Biden faces major court defeat after trying to sell border wall materials before Trump takes over

President Biden has been forced to stop auctioning off materials used for the border wall after the Texas Attorney General stepped in to block the sales. 

The unused material was put up for grabs by Congress who put a plan in place on how to dispose of the excess product after ending wall construction in 2021. 

Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Friday that he had stopped the administration from getting rid of any more before president-elect Trump takes office in January.

The Biden administration agreed with the court order, according to Fox News, allowing President Trump to use the materials. 

Last week, Trump asked a court in the red state to intervene in the sales, accusing Biden of selling off the materials after it was required to do so by Congress. 

Paxton's office said that the incumbent administration could be held in contempt of court if they go against the order. 

The Southern state has long said they would continue to help Trump rebuild the wall at the southern border when he enters office. 

Speaking at a Mar-a-Lago press conference earlier this month, Trump had threatened legal action himself on the sale of the unused portions.

He told reporters: 'We're going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more on building the same wall we already have. It's almost a criminal act.'

He has vowed to crack down on immigration, suggesting a complete overhaul of the current laws in place as soon as he takes office on January 20.  

Paxton said: 'We have successfully blocked the Biden Administration from disposing of any further border wall materials before President Trump takes office.

'This follows our major victory forcing Biden to build the wall, and we will hold his Administration accountable for illegally subverting our Nation’s border security until their very last day in power, especially where their actions are clearly motivated by a desire to thwart President-elect Trump’s immigration agenda.'

Last year, a website called GovPlanet, which offers online auctions for military surplus, listed hundreds of unused parts of the southern barrier.

Between April and August of 2023, they sold 81 steel square structural tubes, which would have been used within the wall's panels, selling them for a $2 million profit.

Officials also managed to sell over 700 28-foot hollow beams in five separate lots for $212 each. 

Trump has brought in former ICE director Tom Homan to serve as 'border czar' for his government, overseeing the largest deportation of immigrants in US history. 

Trump said that Homan would oversee the country's borders in the incoming administration.

Prior to his appointment, Homan said that Trump will use the US Army to round up and deport 'the worst of the worst' illegal migrants in an unparalleled crackdown.

Homan said all of the estimated 20 million people residing in the US illegally would be targeted by the campaign, noting: 'Bottom line: if you come to the country illegally, you're not off the table.'

Homan, who was head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during Trump's first stint in the White House, said he would revive the president elect's 'remain in Mexico' program, in which Mexicans would have their asylum applications processed on their side of the border.

He also promised to close the southern border and build a wall - another flagship Trump pledge.

But the former immigration chief dismissed any suggestion that concentration camps could be used to hold migrants rounded up in the deportation program.

Instead he said he would explore possible arrangements for asylum seekers to be processed in third countries - in an echo of the Rwanda scheme previously touted under Britain before being ditched by Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour government.