Texas saves border wall

The State of Texas yesterday won a federal injunction against the Biden administration’s attempt to sell off border wall segments. But already a leftist organ – pretending to be nonpartisan – is trying to call the Texas position hypocritical. A closer examination of the facts, however, proves who’s telling the truth – and who’s lying.

Texas and its long-standing immigration fight

On January 20, 2021, Joe Biden became President. On that day, he ordered contractors building a wall between the United States and Mexico to down tools, go home, and leave everything as it was. By far the largest extent of that wall lay along the Northern Rio Grande Valley – within Texas.

Texas “took point” against illegal immigration directly after Biden’s order. As part of Operation Lone Star, Texas has erected physical barriers wherever this was physically possible. They include:

• Texas’ own border wall, which the State is building with its own funds,
• A riparian barrier, consisting of stringed buoys alternating with serrated disks, with netting beneath,
• Concertina wire along the Northern Rio Grande Valley near Eagle Pass (the worst unlawful entry point), and
• At least one permanent barracks for Texas National and State Guardsmen charged with border enforcement.

Three months before the election, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said the riparian barrier could remain. On November 27 the Fifth Circuit ruled – again – that Texas was in the right to string the concertina wire. (See docket and injunction.)

BREAKING: the federal court of appeals just ruled that Texas has the right to build the razor wire border wall that we have constructed to deny illegal entry into our state.and that Biden was wrong to cut our razor wire. We continue adding more razor wire border barrier. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas)

BREAKING: the federal court of appeals just ruled that Texas has the right to build the razor wire border wall that we have constructed to deny illegal entry into our state.and that Biden was wrong to cut our razor wire.

We continue adding more razor wire border barrier. pic.twitter.com/a1jLPvceLf— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) November 27, 2024

The appellate panel consisted of Judges Stuart Kyle Duncan, Don Willett, and Irma Carrillo Ramirez. Duncan and Willett are Trump appointees; Carrillo-Ramirez a Biden appointee. Predictably, they voted 2-1 to enjoin any tampering with the concertina wire. Duncan and Willett held that the federal government had waived sovereign immunity, and Texas would likely win on the merits. Carrillo-Ramirez disputed both conclusions.

Texas independence

The Supreme Court had vacated an injunction pending appeal, apparently after two migrants drowned in the Rio Grande. Subsequent evidentiary proceedings at District Court level said Texas was not at fault in those drownings. But at the time, Gov. Abbott declared open defiance – and the Texas Nationalist Movement called for secession.

The TNM urges Governor Greg Abbott and the legislature to call an immediate special session to explore Texas independence, so we may finally protect our border.

⚡️TNM Condemns The Supreme Court’s Ruling On Border – “TEXIT Is The ONLY Way To Finally Secure Our Border”

Nederland, TX – The Texas Nationalist Movement condemns the United States Supreme Court for allowing the Biden administration to intentionally collapse the border between…— Texas Nationalist Movement (TEXIT) (@TexasNatMov) January 23, 2024

That special session didn’t happen. Many other things did, including the Trump assassination attempt, the Biden debate disaster, and the campaign. But two and a half weeks before the election, TNM head Dan Miller declared the election would make no difference. He reasoned that unelected bureaucrats held the real power – so all decisions to interfere with Texas, were theirs. But that was before Trump won, then designated Elon Muck and Vivek Ramaswamy as joint heads of a new Department of Government Efficiency. That Department would strike directly at some of those unelected bureaucrats that do, in fact, create legitimate grievances for Texas.

At the moment Musk and Ramaswamy have provoked a dispute with other supporters of Trump over immigration. That dispute concerns the importation of professionals, with undergraduate and advanced degrees, including especially software engineers. That is not at issue here, because none of those professionals would be crossing a border illegally.

The Jocelyn Nungary Initiative

In fact, after Trump won reelection, Gov. Abbott and his Land Commissioner, Dawn Buckingham, announced offers of land to build deportation facilities on. Texas has been quietly buying up riverbank land to build its own border wall. Now they offered 1400 acres of that land, in Starr County, for lease to the government. Tom Homan quickly indicated the second Trump administration will accept. Then, on November 26, the Land Commissioner announced that further offers would be forthcoming. Commissioner Buckingham calls this expanded offer “The Jocelyn Initiative,” after Jocelyn Nungaray, a twelve-year-old girl found brutally murdered under a bridge in Houston, Texas.

The Jocelyn Initiative in which we will locate appropriate land under my jurisdiction to lease for the construction of violent criminal deportation facilities. My office has identified several of our properties and is standing by ready to make this happen on day one of the Trump presidency. Dawn Buckingham

BREAKING: TX Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham announces the Jocelyn initiative, which will build deportation facilities on Texas land starting on Day 1 of Trump's presidency.

The plan is named after 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray who was r*ped & k*lled by two illegals.

"The… pic.twitter.com/4FL65KujZo— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 26, 2024

Dawn Buckingham

Jocelyn Nungaray’s family watches as the state of Texas installs a border wall panel for their daughter. Collin Rugg

JUST IN: Jocelyn Nungaray’s family watches as the state of Texas installs a border wall panel for their daughter.

The moment came after Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham announced the Jocelyn Initiative.

The initiative will build deportation facilities on Texas land… pic.twitter.com/yoJeKoufU3— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 26, 2024

Then came the most outrageous piece of news yet.

Biden selling off perfectly good wall segments

On December 12, The Daily Wire revealed that a Border Patrol agent informed them that the Biden administration was having unused sections of border wall hauled away from three locations in Arizona.

They are taking it from three stations: Nogales, Tucson, and Three Points. The goal is to move all of it off the border before Christmas.

EXCLUSIVE: Weeks before Trump takes office, Biden is racing to auction off unused border wall materials.

Video shows trucks hauling wall materials off the border to a government auction site, where a massive amount of wall is waiting to be sold. pic.twitter.com/ogaQMBHw7R— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) December 12, 2024

Those were sections President-elect Trump intended to use to finish the wall. Yet it was selling at auction from GovPlanet.com, where bids started at $5 per section.

But on December 20, The Texas Tribune, a member of the States Newsroom network, disputed the report. They insist that Congress authorized the sale as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2023. A Republican amendment directed unnamed “federal officials” to submit a plan for the disposal of “excess border wall material.” In March 2024 the Defense Department submitted its plan. Under it – again according to The Texas Tribune – the Border Patrol and the States of California and Texas bought “more than sixty percent” of this material. Texas also bought $12 million of it, presumably for its own wall-building project. GovPlanet supposedly bought the rest in June and moved it to Arizona in December.

After The Daily Wire published its piece, Trump spoke to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton about it. On December 17, Paxton filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to stop any further sales.

Bait and switch?

Here’s where the story gets interesting. The Texas Tribune insists that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wrote off the materials on December 13 as “not worth salvaging.” But on December 18 Patrick said much more of this material, “not clearly seen before,” were usable.

Yesterday (December 27), the federal court handed down the injunction – and the Biden administration agreed to abide by it. Donald Trump celebrated that injunction this morning:

BREAKING: In a major, crucial WIN for America, and our National Security, a Federal Judge in Texas, based on papers we filed just a few days ago, has PROHIBITED the Biden Administration from selling any materials designated for the Border Wall, that has been wrecked by Biden and his cronies, and which I am going to rebuild in order to protect our Country from violent migrant crime, fentanyl smuggling, sex trafficking, terror attacks, and other heinous, Nation ending disasters. The Judge has also ordered an investigation into the illegal selling of the materials, which will expose just how corrupt and anti-American Radical Democrats are. I am honored to be joined in this vital case by the Great States of Texas and Missouri, and applaud Judge Drew Tipton for doing the right thing for our Country. We have to protect our Borders, and Save America. MAGA!

Attorney General Paxton gave further details in this press release yesterday:

The Biden Administration confirmed to the court today 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. This will be adopted as an order of the court, making it enforceable if any violations occur.

Additionally, the court stated that Texas is entitled to documentation proving that the Biden Administration has not violated an injunction secured by Attorney General Paxton in May of 2024 that required the Biden Administration to spend statutorily obligated funds on border wall construction after the federal government attempted to illegally redirect the money. If it is shown that the Biden Administration disposed of border wall materials purchased with funds subject to that injunction in violation of a court order—or that the Department of Justice made misrepresentations regarding the border materials that have been auctioned off—this would constitute unethical and sanctionable conduct, and the responsible parties could be held in contempt of court.

The federal government would appear to be engaging in two bait-and-switch operations. First was the attempted “illegal redirection” of funds from border wall construction to other purposes. Second was an apparent false assurance that certain wall segments, placed at auction, were not salvageable. The anonymous Border Patrol agent who tipped The Daily Wire, also attested to the usability of those segments.

Even if no salvageable segments remained, that’s Joe Biden’s fault for ordering contractors to down tools and go home. But obviously much of it is salvageable, and the Biden administration intended to stop Texas from having it.

The injunction is good for thirty days, which will last past the Inauguration. So Trump will have at least some of those original segments to use – and he has Texas to thank for it.