A federal judge has ordered President Joe Biden to continue building border wall along the United States-Mexico border with funds allocated under former President Donald Trump.
Late last week, Judge Drew Tipton issued a preliminary injunction ordering the Biden administration to halt diverting funds — initially allocated to building border wall — away from border wall construction.
In 2019, Congress approved billions in funds to construct border wall along the southern border. On Biden’s first day in office, he halted all construction of border wall.
As a result, Texas and Missouri sued Biden for failing to use allocated funds for border wall construction.
Tipton ordered Biden to spend the funds as allocated, to build border wall:
The Government and all its respective officers, agents, servants, employees, attorneys, and other persons who are in active concert or participation with them are hereby ENJOINED and RESTRAINED from implementing the July 2022 Amended Plan to the extent that its obligations are not authorized under Subsection 209(a)(1) and Section 210 as laid out in this Order.
The Government is prohibited from obligating funds under Subsection 209(a)(1)—and corresponding funds under Section 210—toward mitigation and remediation efforts, repair of existing barrier, so-called system attribute installation at existing sites, or other similar purposes. Those types of expenses may be authorized under Subsections (a)(2) through (a)(5) where appropriate, however, Subsection (a)(1) permits only the construction of physical barriers, such as additional walls, fencing, buoys, etc.
This preliminary injunction shall remain in effect pending a final resolution of the merits of this case or until a further Order from this Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit or the United States Supreme Court.
“Biden acted completely improperly by refusing to spend the money that Congress appropriated for border wall construction, and even attempting to redirect those funds,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “His actions demonstrate his desperation for open borders at any cost, but Texas has prevailed.”
Dale Wilcox with the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) said the lawsuit shows that the Biden administration is “at war with our immigration laws.”
‘We are pleased the court checked the administration’s lawlessness here, and ordered it to build the wall the law says must be built,” Wilcox said.
Biden’s halting construction of border wall in early 2021 came even as an internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo in 2017 found that border walls are the most effective deterrent for illegal immigration.
“This is a victory for border security and the rule of law,” Breitbart News senior legal contributor Ken Klukowski noted. “When President Trump tasked his staff with finding available funds for the wall, later-OMB Director Russ Vought and OMB General Counsel Mark Paoletta found the funds, and the open-borders crowd gnashed their teeth.”
“The same principle holds that when Congress appropriates funds for a specific purpose, federal law requires the administration to spend those funds only on items Congress authorized,” Klukowski added. “When Congress specifies that these funds are to be spent on border construction, Joe Biden and his Cabinet must obey that law.”
The case is Texas v. Biden, No. 7:21-cv-00272 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
