Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) committed to buying the border wall segments that President Joe Biden tried to auction off to halt the continuation of President-elect Donald Trump's wall construction.
"I will bid on all of that wall, and we will buy it in Texas, and we will give it to Donald Trump," he said on an episode of Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle."
'This is pure evil against the American people.'
Patrick elaborated on Texas' plan in a post on X, saying that the state will purchase "any panels that make economic sense" and "give them to President Trump when he takes office."
He explained that the Texas Facilities Commission took a closer look at the material being auctioned and found it was "mostly junk, with most panels covered in concrete and rust."
"There were a few panels that might be usable but not worth the cost of shipping to Texas from Arizona," he said. "In short, this was a Biden ruse to gain favor with the radical left open border crowd, showing Biden was fighting President Trump to the bitter end."
During a Fox News interview on Monday, Patrick reiterated, "If there's any decent panels available anywhere, we'll buy them and we'll give them to President Trump when he comes in."
Patrick called Biden's attempts to thwart Trump's border security plan "evil."
"They've opened this border up to 14, 15 million people, terrorists, murders, rapists, child sex offenders," he continued. "This is pure evil against the American people."
Patrick stated that Texas is prepared to do everything within its power to assist Trump in curbing the illegal immigration crisis.
In response to Patrick's plan to purchase unused border segments, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said she can provide the land to store the material until Trump's return.
"If you buy it, I have a place to store it — on state land! The [Texas General Land Office] is standing by to help!" Buckingham declared.
In November, Buckingham offered the Trump administration more than 1,400 acres of land "to allow a facility to be built for the processing, detention, and coordination of the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation's history."
"My office has identified several of our properties and is standing by ready to make this happen on Day One of the Trump presidency," she stated.
Tom Homan, Trump's incoming border czar, has stated that the administration fully intends to take Texas up on its offer to utilize the land to facilitate its mass deportation plan.
Trump has also indicated that he is coordinating with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and others to retrieve the border wall materials.
"What they're doing is really an act, it's almost a criminal act," Trump said. "They know we're going to use it, and if we don't have it, we're going to have to rebuild it. And it'll cost double what it cost years ago, and that's hundreds of millions of dollars because you're talking about a lot of, a lot of wall."
Biden halted the construction of the border wall in January 2021 and began quietly auctioning off the already-purchased materials for pennies on the dollar in 2023.
A defense official told Fox News, "Through our reutilization, transfer and donation process, nearly 60% of those materials were transferred to authorized recipients, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the states of Texas and California."
"The remaining 40% was sold to GovPlanet under a competitive sales contract process beginning in June 2024," the official continued. "The material currently being sold through GovPlanet online auctions no longer belongs to the U.S. Government, and DOD has no legal authority to recall the material or stop further resale of material it no longer owns."
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!