The Biden administration has started to auction off millions of dollars worth of parts that former President Donald Trump’s administration initially bought to build his southern border wall, according to reports.
Since April, GovPlanet, an online auction house that specializes in the sale of military surplus items, has sold 81 lots of steel “square structural tubes.”
The New York Post shared in a report that the tubes were intended for use as vertical bollards in the border barrier’s 30-foot-tall panels.
The tubes have, in total, brought in nearly $2 million, and Tuesday, the auction house sold 729 of the beams in five separate lots for an average of $212 apiece, making $154,200 altogether.
From Aug. 23 to Aug. 30, 13 more lots are set to be auctioned off by GovPlanet.
The sales come on the heels of last month’s defense bill. The bill, which was Republican-sponsored, looked to force Biden into addressing the worsening migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border by continuing the construction of the Trump wall.
Republicans have continued to slam the Biden administration over its handling of the southern border, with some pointing to an estimate from the Army Corps of Engineers that said the unused materials were wasting up to $300 million worth of taxpayer dollars.
So, to address the materials, the Finish It Act was introduced to force the feds to use the purchased materials on new wall construction.
But with the materials now being auctioned off, the House may not have time to pass a matching version of the bill and make it law, leaving lawmakers upset.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) is among those outraged by the move from the Biden administration, telling the Post that it is “outrageous, behind-the-scenes maneuvering.”
“This sale is a wasteful and ludicrous decision by the Biden administration that only serves as further proof they have no shame,” Wicker said.
The report from The Post says that the auctions on GovPlanet picked up in May after Wicker first introduced the Finish It Act. They then picked up again after the Senate passed its defense bill with a bipartisan vote.
Some have asked GovPlanet about the auctions and whether or not there is any political motivation behind them, but the auction house said it could not comment.
“We are legally not allowed to mention these are the border wall materials, or we could lose our jobs,” a GovPlanet source told the Daily Upside, a financial newsletter credited with first reporting on the sales.
In 2021, there were an estimated 1.7 million migrant encounters on the southern border, and a record 2.4 million in 2022, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
In the first nine months of this year, there have already been nearly 1.8 million migrant encounters, according to the agency.
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