A senior border city official said it was “ridiculous” for the Biden administration to sell materials purchased for President Trump’s border wall, both wasting money and letting drugs into the country.
“I do not think so [President Biden] could handle putting up more Trump walls,” Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines told Fox News. “That’s what he’s sworn not to do.”
HOW BIDEN’S IMMIGRATION POLICIES ENHANCED THIS BORDER CITY. WATCH:
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GovPlanet, an online auction marketplace specializing in military surplus, has sold 81 lots of steel “square structural tubing” since April, according to the New York Post. It has made about $2 million in sales and its auction schedule accelerated in May after a GOP-led bill required construction of the border wall to restart or supplies to governments. States.
“It’s ridiculous,” Lines said. “We have completed sections sitting on the floor ready for installation.”
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The steel barriers of Trump’s unfinished border wall lay unused along the southern border. But the Biden administration reportedly began selling the materials through GovPlanet, an online auction house for military supplies. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The Trump administration spent $16 billion building the border wall during the 45th president’s term, according to the Congressional Research Service. But Biden halted construction right after his inauguration in January 2021, leaving the wall unfinished.
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey agreed in December 2022 to remove shipping containers his administration was using to fill gaps in the border wall after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he would erect new barriers. But Lines said there has been little progress, even though Biden’s official said nearly two years ago he would fill some of the high-traffic holes.
WATCH A YUMA OFFICIAL EXPLAIN HOW ARIZONA’S SHIPPING CONTAINERS LIMITED MIGRANT TRAFFIC:
“Mayorkas promised us 20 months ago that he would fill in nine of the 11 gaps,” Lines told Fox News. “Since then, it is estimated that more than 350,000 people have passed through Yuma and around 5,000 children have passed through unaccompanied. We are feeling the effects of the trafficking of fentanyl and other narcotics by the same cartels.”
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Since October 2022, over 23,000 pounds of fentanyl have been seized along the southern border, according to customs and border protection. This already exceeds the 14,400 pounds taken for the whole of the previous fiscal year.
Fentanyl seizures along the southern border this year have already surpassed the more than 14,000 pounds taken at the border in fiscal year 2022. (Arizona Department of Public Safety)
The Biden administration built a fence to fill some gaps in the border wall, but Lines said the administration still failed to secure the border.
“This administration has chosen to spend more money on a new, inferior design,” he said. “They did less in nine months than it took the guys under Trump to accomplish in three weeks.”
CARTELS BANKING BILLIONS OFF BIDEN BORDER CRISIS, DRIVING MIGRANTS THROUGH ‘A GREAT GRAVEYARD’ TO THE US
Migrants walk towards one of the border wall openings in Yuma, Arizona. Over the past 20 months, the Yuma sector has recorded more than 400,000 encounters with migrants, including more than 9,000 unaccompanied children, according to Customs and Border Protection. (Getty Pictures)
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Some families living along gaps in the border wall have hired armed security guards after migrants repeatedly entered their homes, Lines previously told Fox News. Additionally, two farmers in Yuma said migrants crossing the breaches would cross their fields, contaminating their crops and thus threatening the country’s food security.
“It’s only going to get worse with Biden’s policies,” Lines previously said. “He needs to reassess.