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Friday, Dec. 20, 2024

Is the Biden administration selling materials the Trump administration bought to build a border wall?

Carmela Guaglianone, Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting
yes

Materials initially purchased by the Trump administration for the former president’s border wall project have been listed for auction and sold on a government surplus marketplace, GovPlanet. The Biden Administration paused construction on the border wall in 2021.

The supplies are being sold under a federal law requiring the Department of Defense to create and enact a plan to use, transfer or donate stored materials to states along the southern border. Introduced by Republican lawmakers, the law gave priority to projects meant to enhance or maintain security along the border, with the intention of eliminating the cost to maintain or store the materials. It specifically references materials purchased between 2017 and 2021 under former President Trump’s declaration of a national border emergency.

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The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is the state’s only independent, nonpartisan and collaborative nonprofit newsroom dedicated to statewide, data-driven investigative reporting. AZCIR's mission is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable by exposing injustice and systemic inequities through investigative journalism.

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